Corpse Harvest
by Pyro Flare
Summary: Conscripted to help his sister on her farm, Kevin arrives to discover that hell has spread across Harmonica Town in the form of zombies. He teams up with the living townspeople to find out who's behind it all... but can the group survive, let alone stay together? Rated for language and violence.
1. Part 1: The Source

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Most characters will be similar to how they would be in the games, with some embellishments here and there. But due to the nature of this story, some departures will occur.

A/N: Time for a reboot of this. Holy what it's been nearly 4 years? I've been meaning to get around to this for quite some time. It's probably ill-advised for me to start yet another story when I'm juggling a few more already. But it's long overdue and I've had too many ideas surface for this sporadically over the years. Time to corrupt one of the most cheery and relaxing series I know... read, review, and enjoy!

* * *

Corpse Harvest, Chapter 1:

Part 1: The Source.

It was just another sunny day on Castanet Island. The citizens of the various agrarian villages were working their fields or their stores as usual, only that it was a weekend, meaning the children were free to play and frolic... or to have more labor forced upon them by their parents.

Taylor was one such child. He was a resident of Harmonica Town: a settlement among the southern tip of Castanet Island. An ambitious young child, Taylor had run away one day after his parents got into another argument. His goal was to start a farm by himself, without all of the fighting. Fortunately for his parents, the authorities found and returned him. Things had been better since then... a strange drought had afflicted Harmonica Town, but thankfully it was over now.

Not that Taylor really understood the drought. He liked to act as what he thought an older boy would act, but he was still just a child. To him, his parents had just stopped fighting and started working more once he was taken back and his older sister came back from her travels.

"Stupid mom..." Taylor grumbled as he tended the fields of Marimba Farm, the farm his family owned. He was currently frustrated with his mother's insistence on certain kinds of crop. Not understanding much about business and profits, Taylor simply wanted as many varieties of crops of possible with some of the seeds he got from the more mercantile of the villages on the northern part of the island (he never managed to run away to the mainland).

Taylor briefly paused working to stand up and wipe the sweat from his brow when he saw his father slowly approaching. Taylor shook his head as he stooped over and resumed working. His dad was probably sad for some reason again. Wasn't he in the Fugue Forest foraging for some mushrooms to cook for dinner later? Why was he back so soon?

As his father got closer, Taylor heard him groaning in pain. Had he been attacked by some wild animal? Taylor dropped what he was doing and walked over to his father in a brisk pace. He seemed to be scuffed up some and was walking weirdly.

"What's wrong dad? Did some animal attack you?" Taylor asked worriedly. Craig continued to groan and move towards his son. Something was not right here. Taylor got a glimpse under his father's hat and saw that his eyes were now white.

"...Dad?" Taylor asked, uneasy, as his father kneeled down, opened his mouth, and lunged forth.

* * *

Maya's legs dangled above the floor, a sign of her unease as she sat upon Chase's bed. She lightly gnawed on her lower lip as she watched Chase cut into her pie with trepidation. Maya had always had a passion for food and the culinary arts... but she was abysmal at cooking. Chase, on the other hand, was really good at it. He worked at the Brass Bar now, but when he had a job at the Ocarina Inn that her family ran, he gave her a few pointers. Her initial efforts were bad, but ever since she's been getting tips from her grandma her cooking has improved. The pie was as freshly baked as she could manage, since she had a limited window to get to Chase's house during her break.

"Well... you didn't burn it this time. So already it will be better than anything you've cooked," Chase said bluntly as he picked up a piece of the apple pie. He opened his mouth and slowly moved the piece towards it, Maya leaning forward with anticipation as it inched closer. Chase paused when the pie was a few inches away. "Are you sure you made this? You didn't buy it or have Yolanda make it for you?"

"Of course not!" Maya fiercely exclaimed with crossed arms, an exaggerated pout, and a fierce glare.

"Whoa now, I'm just kidding like usual. Don't bite my face off," Chase said with a smile. That seemed to calm Maya down... until he popped the piece into his mouth without any warning, startling her. She got so cute when she was riled up... and it was so easy to do.

Maya eagerly waited as Chase slowly chewed and sampled the piece of the pie. He hadn't taken an entire slice (a smart move on his part), but the fact that he compared it to a store-bought pie or, better yet, one made by her grandma brought her hopes up. She really tried her hardest to make this pie, and she really wanted to impress Chase. He was more than a mentor and a friend to her... but she didn't know if he knew that.

Chase finished the piece and thought it over. Maya awaited his response with bated breath.

"Well-" he began, but their attentions were grabbed by a sudden scream of pain from outside. Maya sprung to her feet, and the two quickly exited Chase's house to see what the commotion was about.

"OH MY GODDESS!" they heard Ruth scream with shock. Marimba Farm was right near the house, so it didn't take long to see what was happening. Maya yelped with fright, unsure of what to make of the situation.

"What the hell?" Chase uttered in disbelief. There was blood on the ground... Taylor's blood. The boy was lying on the ground with Craig perched over his body. He couldn't tell exactly from this angle, but from Craig's movement and the smacking noises he heard... Craig was _eating_ Taylor.

Chase ran up and fiercely grabbed Craig on his shoulder, throwing the man away from Taylor's body. What he saw in his peripheral vision was... not pretty. But he was looking right at Craig, who had bloodied hands and blood dripping from his mouth. The man groaned as he stood himself up and slowly walked towards Chase.

"Have you gone mad?" Chase asked fiercely, unsure of what else to say. Ruth was now sobbing over Taylor's body. Chase turned around. "Did you check his pulse?" he asked in a half-worried, half-commanding tone.

This only made Ruth sob louder. The boy was dead? What the hell... what the hell was going on?

"WATCH OUT!" he heard Maya shriek. Chase turned back towards Craig to see the crazed man lunging at him, jaw wide open. Chase kicked him in his gut, sending him stumbling back.

"What's the matter?" Chase heard Cain call out from over the hill. "Is everything okay?" his wife echoed.

"No! I... Craig's gone crazy, I don't know!" Chase responded. "Maya and I will get the doctor!"

Not waiting for a response, Chase started running towards town, grabbing Maya's wrist as he did so. She only snapped out of her shocked stupor when they crossed the bridge exiting Flute Fields. Maya lightly tugged at his hand, signaling Chase to let go. He did, while hoping that Cain had things under control.

"Why... why would he do that?" Maya whimpered.

"I have no idea... this is so crazy..." Chase said, shaking his head in disbelief. The two ran past Angela's farm and continued to Harmonica Town. When they approached the bridge that led to the town, they had to pause in shock.

Across it was Simon's photography store. Simon was in front of it, strewn across the ground as Mayor Hamilton and his son, Gill, tore into his stomach, pulling out his guts and eating them. Maya buried her face into Chase's shoulder, sobbing in fright. Chase only watched in utter disbelief as not only the mayor and his son stood up and walked towards him, but also Simon.

"I don't think the doctor can help us..." Chase said grimly. He grabbed Maya and ran over the bridge, running right past the zombies as one of them lunged at him but thankfully missed. Jin was outside of the clinic, in front of the school. He looked just as afraid and shocked as Chase had when he saw Craig... he imagined a similar scenario as the one back at Flute Fields unfolded, with Jin hearing screams from outside. He must have witnessed the whole grisly scene of Simon being attacked.

"Craig did the same thing in Flute Fields..." Chase said to the doctor. "He got Taylor."

"I... I don't know," Jin said, shaking his head. "What I'm seeing is impossible. Just... make sure that the others are okay."

"Mom!" Maya screamed in fear as she pointed over to a discarded shopping bag on the ground a few feet away. Some groceries had tumbled out of the bag, and there was a trail of blood droplets on the ground leading to the Harmonica Inn. Some sort of altercation obviously had taken place. "She was shopping before I left on my break..." Maya added quietly. She broke from Chase and ran to the inn.

"Maya! Hold up!" Chase called out as he ran after her, but she got too much of a head start to catch up in time. Maya threw open the doors of her family's inn. She screamed in horror, calling out for her dad as she ran in. Chase broke into a sprint and made a sharp curve to enter the hotel in time. Maya was frozen in place, tears streaming down her face.

"Maya..." Jake called out weakly as his body went limp. Yolanda was eating parts of his arm, and Colleen was chewing on his neck. The two women looked up from their meal and made ghastly moans as they walked towards Chase and Maya, clumsily climbing over the front desk instead of walking around it. Sure enough, Jake began moving again, acting just like them, despite the fatal wounds he had suffered. It was at this moment that Chase noticed that their eyes were now white.

Colleen lunged at her daughter, and Chase cried out as he ran in front of Maya to protect her. He yelled in pain as Colleen's teeth sank into his inner shoulder, tearing off a chunk of flesh. He pushed her back, grabbed Maya, and fled to the side wing of the inn before shutting themselves in the nearest room.

"Dad... Mom... Granny..." Maya sobbed. "And now you, too? I'm so, so sorry..."

Chase didn't want to admit it, but she was likely right. Simon had been eaten by the crazy mayor and his son and yet came back from death. It looked like Colleen was attacked outside, ran into the inn, and then went crazy. Jake went crazy after a bite, too. This was some messed-up disease or something equally insane.

Chase sighed. His head already felt a bit funny, but he wasn't sure if that was because of the bite or because of the throbbing pain of his injury mixed with the sudden stress of the last few minutes. "Yeah... I think I'm going to go nuts, too. But no way am I leaving you in here with me. And your family out there..."

"What are you-" Maya began, seeing that Chase was thinking of something.

"I'm going to run out there and distract them. You need to get to a safe place, or hide, or... you just can't go crazy, understand?" Chase said sternly.

"But I don't want to leave you!" Maya cried while shaking her head. "I... I love you, Chase!" Those words, coupled with her sorrowful countenance, wounded Chase so much more than the bite on his shoulder.

"...I love you, too, Maya," Chase said tenderly. "And that's why I'm doing this. Keep safe... keep sane... for me."

"Don't go..." Maya whimpered as Chase straightened himself, turning around to face the door.

"Oh, and your pie..." Chase said as he grasped the doorknob. He turned back at Maya and gave her one last smile. "It was delicious."

Maya sank to her knees as her emotions overwhelmed her. Chase opened the door and quickly closed it. She heard him yelling outside and the moans of her family as they pursued him, but the noises quickly faded, replaced by her own quaking sobs. She knew what Chase wanted her to do, but she couldn't, no matter how hard she could try... she could only ball herself up and cry.

The tears only intensified when she heard what sounded like Chase screaming in pain from outside. Her sobs became wails when it fully hit her that everyone she cared about was now gone. The despair, hopelessness, pain, terror, and heartbreak only escalated when she heard the moans of her family and Chase outside of the room as they pounded on the door, blow after blow...

Despite the urgency of the situation and the threat to her life (or at least her sanity), she was locked in place. Her fear and sadness was too much of a burden for her to even stand.


	2. Welcome to Harmonica Town

Corpse Harvest, Chapter 2:

Kevin yawned and then fidgeted in an attempt to gain the most comfort possible out of the back of the rickety wagon he was riding in. He was not looking forward to this trip earlier, but when it turned out that there were no cars any lower than the port city on the northern tip of Castanet Island and that he would be traveling by horse-drawn carts all the way down the island, he seriously considered turning back. But there was no way he could do that... his sister would kill him.

Kevin made a grunt of annoyance as the wheel of the wagon hit a bump that sent him reeling for just a moment. "Sorry 'bout that! Roads are a little rough out here!" the wagon's rider said. Kevin sighed and attempted to get comfortable yet again with minimal success.

"So, any particular reason you're heading out to Harmonica Town? Lovely little place, but its remote location certainly deters some people from visiting. You're from the mainland right? A city boy?" the cart rider asked.

"Um... yes," Kevin responded, a bit taken aback by the man's lucky guess. "How did you know?"

"You're certainly not moving there, are you? Awful scant if that's the case."

"No, not at all. My sister's forcing me to come out here and help her work. And since I can't get a job back at the city, the whole family pressured me to go. Not that I had a choice as soon as my sister told me to come. It's... not pretty when you don't do what she wants. But how did you guess I was from the city?" Kevin asked.

"You're the first farmer I've seen that wears a bowtie around his neck!" the wagon rider exclaimed with a chuckle.

"H-Hey! It keeps bugs from biting!" Kevin exclaimed, embarrassed. _I knew I should have got a scarf of some sort instead..._ he thought to himself.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure you'll do fine if you have a lick of farming skill in you," the wagon rider said. There was a bit of silence, which ended with the rider chuckling some more. "Well, hopefully your sister's good enough at farming to coach you, though I suspect she is. Angela Wilson your sister?"

"Okay, how did you guess that one? Are you psychic?" Kevin asked incredulously.

"Not at all. Just good at figuring out folk. 'Sides, there are only three farms out there, and the family of two of them are all accounted for. Met your sister, once. I'm sort of the main ferryman on this island. You two seem to have the same hair curl."

"Ah, yes. _That_," Kevin said with distaste as he reached up and tried to comb down the curl with his hands. It was a futile attempt, as it sprung right back into place every time. "Everyone in the family has something like that, but I'm the one cursed to not look good with it. I tried cutting it off once, but I'd rather there be a curl than an even more off-putting stump."

The wagon rider chuckled once more. "Well you seem like a nice fellow. Any reason you're not looking forward to this job that's been put into your hands? The town's a lovely little place... some of the friendliest folk on this island, too."

"My sister will suck out any joy I may get out of this. She's rather brutal when she gets to bossing others around..." Kevin sighed. He wished there was something else to look at other than the wagon, the rider, the horse, or rolling fields and hills.

"From what I've heard, she's real nice. It's been at least a year since I took her to Harmonica Town... the place was in a bit of rough spot because of a drought that's thankfully over now, and she helped the town out quite a bit. Made it a better place."

"Nice to everyone except the baby brother of the family," Kevin sighed. "I mean, sure, she'll unleash the beast when you push her buttons, but I seem to be the only one that constantly has her in that state."

The wagon rider stopped. Where they here? Kevin looked around, but didn't see anything.

"End of the road," the wagon rider said. "Just follow the path a little more and you'll end up at Flute Fields. The folk there should be able to take you to where you need to go."

Kevin eagerly hopped out of the back of the wagon, stretching to help ease the cramps he had suffered sitting in the rickety thing. He reached into his pocket, pulled out his wallet, and gave the rider a few bills. The rider tipped his hat at Kevin and made his horse turn around.

"I'm sure you'll enjoy your time here. You might even find yourself a pretty lass!' the wagon rider exclaimed cheerfully before he flicked the horse's reins, causing it to move.

_I sure hope so..._ Kevin thought bitterly. He watched the wagon slowly fade over the horizon and then mustered up the strength to move into the town's property. He couldn't just wait it out... he'd have to confront this task eventually.

He followed the path like the wagon rider instructed, and it curved and descended around a large hill until he saw a ranch. The first sign of civilization ever since he hopped on the wagon... well, he had no idea how much time had passed. Certainly less than the trip seemed to take. Which was months.

Well, he could see why the wagon rider let him off early. There wasn't much room for the horse to turn around here and there was a gate with a rope signaling the entry point of Flute Fields. There was a sign next to it, informing him that the ranch was called Horn Ranch. He shook his head at that, criticizing it in his head. Was everything in this town going to be named after musical instruments?

Kevin peered past the gate and didn't see anyone outside, so he just climbed over it. He walked past the barns of Horn Ranch and to the nearest house, likely where the family that ran the ranch stayed. He knocked on the door. No response. He knocked again. More silence. He pressed his ear up against the door and didn't hear anything. The curtains were closed on the windows, so he couldn't see if anyone was inside, but it certainly sounded like it was empty. He didn't show up on a festival day or something, did he?

Following the guidance of dirt paths and signs, he shortly arrived at another establishment in the fields, Marimba Farm. This destroyed any doubt that everything in the town wasn't named after instruments, and Kevin felt that this fact would subtly annoy him for undetermined reasons. Someone else seemed to live next to the farm.

As he walked up to the buildings, he froze in his tracks. Was that... blood on the ground? He looked around and didn't see anything... this place was close to a forest, so maybe a wild animal killed another here? Well, hopefully people were home so he could ask about it. He tried the farm first and then the home. Similar to Horn Ranch, nobody responded and there was no way of peering inside of the houses. So much for the town's hospitality that the wagon rider sold him on.

Kevin continued following the pathways and signs. It seemed that his sister's farm was between Flute Fields and Harmonica Town. Sunrise Farm... perhaps the only place here not named after music, and that was nice. He couldn't believe he was thinking this, but he hoped his sister was there just so he could meet somebody.

He arrived at the quaint little farm and admired the signs of his sister's work. The fields were full of crops, and she had a nice coop and barn that were probably full of animals. He walked up to the building, hesitated, and knocked on the door. To his surprise, the door was ajar, creaking open as his knuckles made contact with it. He peered into this house. Nobody was home, but the lights were still on. Strange... Kevin flipped the lights off and closed the door. He walked around the farm for a bit, calling out his sister's name, but receiving no response.

Weirded out and slightly spooked, Kevin walked down the dirt path he arrived on and headed towards Harmonica Town. Surely he would find people there... right? If this was all some joke his sister played on him... he'd definitely leave, her wrath be damned.

He wasn't sure if he should feel annoyed or scared when he arrived in the town to see nobody about. All he could hear were the distant ocean waves rolling onto the beach, as well as the cries of seagulls. The town was certainly neat, being terraced instead of having a traditional layout. He wondered if you could hear people walking above you in the lower houses...

He peered around a bit more and became fed up with not seeing anybody. "Is anyone there?" he called out. He heard a few quiet murmurs. Finally! The town wasn't dead after all!

He peered down the lowest level of the town and saw some people in the distance. He walked forward, and the first person he saw was a portly man in a rather posh outfit with gray hair made up in an old-timey style. Kevin called out to the man, who turned around and... was this a joke?

The man growled as he slowly walked towards Kevin like a drunk. Blood stained his mouth, hands, and the front of his suit... and his eyes were entirely white. Zombies? Angela wouldn't go out of her way to pull off a prank like this, would she? She didn't even like horror movies...

And it wasn't just this man; there were two others behind him: a young man with platinum blond hair that had a single curl like Kevin's, and an older man with short blue-gray hair. The younger man had plaid pants and a nice sweater that was slightly torn and stained with blood. The older man was wearing a light blue work shirt, brown pants, and a darker blue apron... but the apron and shirt had been torn apart around his stomach area, which had been torn into. A few lone intestines dangled from the gaping wound.

Kevin was terrified and could feel his breakfast rushing up into his mouth. He forced it back down and took a few steps back in shock. All three of them had white eyes and blood on them... they looked so real. This was beyond a practical joke. This was happening. Zombies were real!

Kevin turned around and ran back to the concrete pathway. He was about to follow it, where ever it took him, but blocking his path was another zombie: a bespectacled old woman with her long gray hair tied back into a ponytail, her head framed by a purple scarf tied around it. Kevin sharply turned to his left, running into the middle layer of the town. There were a few more zombies surrounding the first building. Kevin didn't take any time in his flight to take a good look at them or to be concerned as to why they were gathering around that building. He booked it right past them and went into the next building, which was pink in color.

He entered and slammed the door behind him. He seemed to have entered an inn, as there was a receptionist's desk (with some blood splatters over there) and a kitchen of sorts. Kevin tried to calm down and gather his thoughts, but he heard more ghastly moans. There were some in here, too!

Three of them emerged from a side door and shambled towards Kevin. There was an older lady, short and stout, with gray-tinted lavender hair tied into two pigtails and a bun atop her head, a dark bite mark bleeding through a tattered spot on her yellow shirt. A man wearing a green vest with well-groomed gray hair, bite marks on his neck and one beneath his gray shirt was behind the older lady. Next to him was a woman with short light brown hair wearing a green dress, a bite mark clearly visible on one of her exposed shoulders.

Kevin didn't know what to do, so he grabbed the nearest chair in the dining area of the inn's lobby and readied for the zombies to near. The old woman lunged at him, and he thrust the chair forward, knocking her back into the man and causing both of them to tumble down. That did little to deter them, as they were already getting back up and the woman was close to him.

She snarled at him as she grabbed at him, her teeth gnashing in anticipation of eating him. Kevin yelled in a mixture of anger and fright as he swung the chair as hard as he could at her head. Three of the legs broke off on impact, but the blow did little else than agitate her. Kevin backed up as she drew closer. He panicked and threw the rest of the chair at her, but that also did nothing other than stagger her momentarily.

Kevin frantically looked around and saw flowers in a vase on the receptionist's desk. He grabbed it and turned around to see that the woman was right behind him. He smashed the vase against her head, the flowers falling to the ground as water and chunks of porcelain slid down her head. The woman grabbed him and pushed him, causing the back of his head to hit the desk. This would have disoriented him if not for his adrenaline. The woman was now on him, her sharp nails digging into his shirt as her head drew near for a bite. Kevin was struggling with her, holding her back by the neck with one hand as the other reached up to the top of the desk for something, anything to use to fend her off. The other two zombies were getting closer...

Kevin grasped a small object that felt like a pen. That might actually work. He quickly removed it from its holster and jammed the writing utensil deep into the woman's eye. She stopped moving and making noise as her body momentarily stiffened and then went limp. Kevin pushed her body off of him and scrambled to the side as the older woman dove at him.

He walked over to a nearby table and flipped it, causing it to knock over the man that was nearby. With him momentarily downed again, Kevin walked over to the old woman and grabbed a hand full of hair. Before she recovered and turned to try and bite him, he slammed her face onto the desk, causing a loud thud. She was still groaning and struggling against his grip, so Kevin continued. Each slam sounded more painful as crunches and wet sounds accentuated each thud, blood and teeth being sent flying with each blow. The older woman was soon dead, and Kevin quickly let go before blood and brain matter leaked down onto his hands.

He turned around to see the man lunging right at him. He had taken too long! He was grabbed by the man and tried to struggle, but the man had him in a bear hug and was moving towards his neck. No! He was going to be killed and become one of them!

Another thud was heard, and Kevin was suddenly released from the man's grip. He opened his eyes to see a sorely missed sight: another person! It was a young lady around his age with scruffy blonde hair that was accentuated with, in Kevin's opinion, two small superfluous pigtails. She wore a pink poofy and frilly short dress befitting of a waitress with a short white apron tied over it. Some blood had splattered onto the apron from the blow she dealt to the man. Kevin glanced down to see his head had been caved in by a cash register. He was suddenly embraced by the girl, who openly wept into his shoulder. Taken aback, Kevin shushed her and gently brushed her hair with his hand.

"Hey, hey... it's okay now..." he said. The girl let go of him... her eyes were red and puffy. She had been crying quite a bit. She had been trapped in here with those things... and he now noticed that she looked a bit like the zombie woman that he had killed.

"Oh no..." Kevin said, a horrible realization washing over him. "Were they your family?"

The girl's eyes began to tear up again. She bit her lip and glanced down at their bodies before nodding.

"I'm so, so sorry..." Kevin said. "What... what the hell happened here? Where is everyone? Are you the only one left?"

"I don't really know..." she said quietly. "I just know that I can't thank you enough for saving me, whoever you are."

"You saved my life, too," Kevin said. "And I'm Angela's younger brother. Looks like she picked a hell of a time to ask for me to come out here..." he added bitterly.

"My name is Maya," the girl said. "And... we're not alone..." she added, her voice lowering and dying out into a whimper as she pointed at the open side door that Maya's family had come from.

Kevin heard it: another zombie lowly moaning, this one a man. Slowly emerging from the side door was a young man with short curly strawberry blond hair. Blood was scattered all throughout his tattered clothing, the dark blue apron slightly torn, his white shirt more so. Chunks were missing from his neck and arms, and he had significantly less blood around his mouth.

"Chase tried to protect me. He sacrificed himself so I could get away, but... but I was so scared..." Maya cried quietly. It was obvious from her tone of voice that she deeply cared about this man.

"Then I'll put him out of his misery..." Kevin said lowly as he walked forward, grabbing one of the broken-off chair legs on the floor. He gripped the wooden leg like a baseball bat, taking deep breaths as Chase shambled towards him.

"Don't do it..." Maya whimpered.

"I have to," Kevin affirmed. "We just can't leave him like this."

Maya had no response but to cry as Kevin yelled in anger. He raised the chair leg and brought it down on Chase's head, smacking it hard enough to send him crashing into the floor. Maya screamed bloody murder as Kevin bashed Chase's head several more times until he had cracked his skull and ended his life. He dropped the chair leg and turned away from the body, feeling sick and confused.

"We need to leave," Kevin said in a sudden realization. The commotion caused in this building may have been audible to the zombies outside. Maya seemed to be in too much despair to move on her own, so Kevin grabbed her hand and guided her towards the door.

"Why?" she sobbed. Kevin didn't know if that was directed towards his command or if it was asked because he killed Chase. Kevin's response assumed the former. "There are more of them surrounding the building next door. Do you have any idea where anyone else is? Flute Fields and my sister's farm are empty."

It was at this point that the adrenaline faded and reality set back in. His sister was in danger, and he had no idea if she was safe, injured, or one of those things. He wanted to flee this town, to just run back home and forget all about what he just witnessed and did. This was just some crazy nightmare... but it was real. And if he left it alone, it would spread. He would be dooming these people to a fate worse than death. And he couldn't live with himself if he did that.

"I... I would guess the church," Maya said quietly, but at least she sounded surer of herself. She let go of his hand and took a few steps forward, opening the doors of the inn. "You wouldn't know where it is," she added in a whisper. Kevin pointed in the direction to go, and the two of you slipped out of the building past the notice of the nearby zombies.

With some stairs taking both of them to the top terrace (which was free of the undead), the two ran back onto the concrete pathway. Maya led Kevin to the way he was heading before that old woman zombie stopped him. The path curved around a cliffside and led to a quaint little church. There seemed to be no zombies around. As they approached the church doors, they could hear tumultuous conversation inside, dampened by the building. There were people inside!

Kevin excitedly threw open the doors of the church, and silence washed over the people inside as they turned to look at the doors. There were many people in the church, more than ten! Kevin would have counted, but he saw Angela and the unmistakable lone curl in her brown hair and immediately ran forward to hug his sister.

"You're okay!" he exclaimed with relief.

"Oh God, Kevin! I completely forgot about you!" Angela said as they stopped embracing. "I can't imagine how showing up at this time might have been..."

"Maya's safe!" some of the villagers cheered as she entered the church and closed the doors behind her. The villagers began quietly discussing amongst themselves.

"Do you have any idea what's going on?" Kevin asked his sister.

"None of us do, really. This all just started about an hour ago... we only recently gathered here in the church. In fact, we were about to..." Angela started before trailing off. She walked away from Kevin, walking to the church's podium.

"Okay everyone, listen up!" Angela shouted in an authoritative tone (or, as Kevin would describe it, the "bitchy bossy voice"). Everyone stopped talking and turned to look her way. "We need to assess the situation here. First off, the man here who saved Maya is my baby brother, Kevin. He's here because I told him to come and help me out. Shit hit the fan a bit before he showed up, so now he's in this with us. He'll be a great helping hand. I know he will."

Kevin noticed that most of the villagers were now looking at him. Angela turned to her brother. "I'm going to introduce you to everyone real quick. You've saved Maya... she was a waitress at the Ocarina Inn that was run by her family... which, if they're not here..."

"Yeah..." Kevin said lowly, confirming what his sister was implying.

"Right..." Angela said with a heavy-hearted sigh. "Well, that family over there is who you would have met the first as you went into the town. That's Cain and Hanna with their daughter, Renee... they run the Horn Ranch." Cain was a strong and muscular man with short brown hair wearing blue work jeans and a yellow shirt. Hanna was a slightly plump woman with light brown hair fashioned into a hoop-shaped ponytail. Renee was a young woman with short brown hair (with two long bangs framing her face) wearing a yellow and orange work dress. The two women of the family appeared distraught, but Cain seemed calm, albeit lost in troubling thought.

"Those two are Ruth and her daughter Anissa who ran the Marimba Farm... the father and younger brother of this family were taken by the zombies." Ruth had chin-length black hair, wore a dark blue dress with a bright green apron over it, and was quietly sobbing. Anissa was a beautiful girl with long black hair wearing a dress with a floral design on it. Her gaze showed that she was lost deep in thought, or perhaps shocked by everything that had happened.

"That's Kathy and her father, Hayden. They owned the Brass Bar here in town." Hayden was a fierce-looking burly man that was bald on the top of his head. He had a big bushy brown beard, a white button-up shirt with an open brown vest over it, and blue jeans. Kathy was a rather pretty lady with her dark blonde hair tied back in a long ponytail. She wore a blue shirt tied to expose her midriff, a rather short brown skirt, and had expensive-looking boots. Kathy was hugging her father, who was quietly stroking her hair and comforting her the best way he could in this crisis.

"Those two are Julius and Owen, who work near the mines. Owen was an apprentice of the blacksmith, and Julius was an apprentice of the gem cutter." Owen was a muscular young man with chestnut spiked hair, brown pants, and a black sleeveless shirt. If Kevin didn't hear Julius' name, he would have assumed the man was a woman. From the long purple hair with yellow streaks in it to the red shirt with ruffled cuffs to the strange cloth sash around his waist, nothing about this man was masculine.

"That girl is Candace... she worked at the tailor here, but I'm pretty sure she's the only survivor from that household..." Indeed, this poor young woman seemed to be quietly drowning in her sorrows. With blue hair fashioned into two large and long pigtails, thick bangs obscuring her eyes, and the pale blue shirt and dark cyan skirt, she didn't seem to be the cheery type with such a cold color scheme. She seemed to be on a perpetual verge of tears.

"And the man in the back is Perry, the pastor of the church," Angela concluded. Kevin hadn't even seen the dark-haired man earlier. He was fidgeting in a corner, looking extremely worried.

"Should we really be wasting our time on introductions?" Owen asked briskly. "Not to sound rude, but there are people in danger out there!"

"We've only just now collected ourselves," Cain spoke calmly. "We need to figure out what we're doing here before rashly going outside. We all know what those things can do to you."

Owen took offense to that and stood up from his pew. "I couldn't save my little cousin, you bastard! I know the pain I feel, and I can see the pain others in here are feeling right now! I won't let anyone else suffer!"

"So are you going to run out there and get yourself killed? Do you even know who to look for?" Hayden said in a stern baritone. This seemed to calm Owen down.

"Call the police..." Ruth murmured, sounding somewhat in shock. "Why haven't we called the police?"

"We'd have to get to a phone first," Julius said, his voice surprisingly deep. Okay, so there was _one_ masculine quality to him. "I don't know how many people here have cell phones, but there's no reception out here. We have no way to prove our claims. They won't help us."

"'Protect and serve,' my ass..." Kathy grumbled to herself.

"So it's only happening here?" Kevin asked.

"Yes... though I don't know if we should feel thankful for that," Angela said with a sigh. "Besides, the city's far off. Even if we could prove ourselves, it would still take some time to get here."

"So what do we do? Make sure everyone's safe? Then what? Do we just abandon our homes and find someone to help us? Some of us have crops and animals that need to be cared for! They just can't be neglected!" Cain asked.

"C-Can't we just kill them all?" Perry piped up, his voice shaky. "Just get rid of them. That would be that."

Maya shook her head, her pigtails flopping around. "No... what I saw back at the inn... I don't want to see it ever again. But every time I close my eyes..."

"I took down three of them," Kevin said. "But just one was enough to almost kill me. If Maya hadn't saved me, I wouldn't be here right now. I wouldn't recommend fighting them."

"Don't we have weapons, dear?" Hanna asked her husband. "Guns?"

"...We do. A few guns just in case. We've never had to use them, thank the Goddess..." Cain said. "So does this mean we're going to fight back?"

"I don't think that's the best course of action until we've saved everyone," Owen said.

"There's also the problem of food and places to sleep," Renee said. "The Ocarina Inn could solve both of those problems, but..."

"I... I don't know if I want to step foot in there," Maya said weakly.

"It's a mess in there," Kevin confirmed. "We'd have to clean it out. And doing it right now isn't the best time... there were zombies outside of the building next door, surrounding it."

"The clinic..." Angela breathed. Kevin saw that some of the villagers seemed confused by him referring to them as "zombies." The more knowledgeable quickly and quietly informed them of what they were, but Kevin was surprised at just how rustic this village was.

He noticed now that Anissa had a notepad and a pencil and was writing things down. "If we're going to save people, we need to know who is accounted for, who is lost, and who have become these creatures..."

"I haven't seen Toby..." Renee said sadly.

"Chase... my family... they're gone... they became those things but now they're dead..." Maya said, about to cry again. Kevin walked over to her and comforted her.

Candace tried speaking at this moment, but her words died in her throat, only replaced by low, shaking sobs.

"We know Craig and Taylor are gone..." Cain said with a deep breath. "I saw Mayor Hamilton, Gill, and Simon out there."

"Ozzie, Paolo, Pascal... they're gone," Hayden said.

"It was chaos as we were trying to get out of the mines district..." Owen said. "I lost Chloe. I couldn't protect her. I know Uncle Ramsey is one of those things. Maybe Barbara, too..."

"Mira's gone," Julius said with a bit of remorse. "I didn't see the carpenters anywhere, nor Phoebe or Calvin... those two might be in the mines, oblivious to this whole mess."

Anissa finished jotting down notes. She then stood up, and everyone else (besides Candace and Perry) gathered around to see what she had written:

ALIVE

Angela, Anissa, Cain, Candace, Hanna, Hayden, Julius, Kathy, Kevin, Maya, Perry, Renee, Ruth

DEAD

Chase, Colleen, Jake, Yolanda

UNDEAD

Barbara (?), Chloe, Craig, Gill, Hamilton, Luna, Mira, Ozzie, Paolo, Pascal, Ramsey, Shelly, Simon, Taylor

LOST

Bo, Calvin, Dale, Irene, Jin, Luke, Phoebe, Samson, Selena, Sue, Toby, the Witch, the Wizard

"Seems like we have our work cut out for us..." Cain said. "If we're in agreement to rescue everyone first, should we split up?"

"We know the clinic is being attacked," Hayden said. "Phoebe and Calvin are in the Garmon Mines. The carpenters could be in the forest next to their home or in the Fugue Forest. Samson and Sue could still be on Toucan Island, and I haven't seen Selena. She could be in danger. Toby could be anywhere, too..."

"Witch? Wizard? Who?" Kevin asked, confused.

"Both are recluses that practice mysticism... they're strange people," Angela explained. "The Witch lives deep in the forest and never comes out... she's probably fine. The Wizard built the observatory in town, but I don't think he's currently here, so you can mark them off the lists." Anissa did so, but added them to the "alive" section, adding "not present" next to their names.

"Do we have enough _willing_ people to even split up?" Julius asked. "Sure, our numbers may be large, but Perry is shaking in his boots and Candace is... out of commission. No offense, but I'm sure most women here aren't willing to face such danger... I don't know if I could handle it, either."

"Then who is willing to do what it has to take to save the others?" Kevin asked, raising his hand to show his determination. He did not like facing off against Maya's family, and Chase obviously meant something to her. He had almost been bitten, and he was still in disbelief that he killed three zombies... but seeing the pain on Maya's face and the following relief of her being safe validated his purpose. Seeing the group of survivors here, and knowing the fates of those who didn't make it... he would do everything he could to ensure that nobody else became one of the walking dead.

Cain, Owen, and Hayden almost simultaneously raised their hands, followed by Angela and Kathy. Nobody else raised their hands.

"Just six, then..." Cain said, shooting glares at some of the people who didn't raise their hands, including his wife and daughter.

"I don't like it either, honey, but it's safer this way!" Hanna exclaimed in a guilty way. "We can't just have everyone go out there!"

"Then we're deciding who is most important..." Hayden said with a heavy sigh. "I can't believe we're doing this. This feels wrong..."

"There's only one choice that makes sense at the moment," Kevin said. "We have to save whoever is in the clinic. They're the closest, and having a doctor would be a big help."

"I agree," Angela said. That often didn't happen. Kevin felt a bit odd that his sister agreed with him.

"Then it's settled... we head to the clinic..." Owen said. The group of six walked towards the church doors, feeling the gazes of the others in the church piercing into their backs.

"Please... be safe. And make it back as yourselves," Anissa said, speaking for the rest of the church.

The group of six said nothing as they opened the double doors and walked outside. The doors closed shut, leaving those in the church alone as they dwelled among their thoughts of fear and regret.


	3. The Clinic

Corpse Harvest, Chapter 3:

A quick scan of the area showed that none of the zombies were nearby. Kevin noticed some pathways on both sides of the church grounds.

"Where do those go?" he asked, not being able to quell his curiosity.

"The ones to our right lead to the cemetery and a mine cart that takes you to the Garmon Mines district," Hayden explained as the group continued moving towards town. "We already looked... the mine cart isn't there. The other path just leads to a small garden."

"It's not just that," Cain sighed. "The gardens have a small boundary, but past that is a lot of uninhabited land. Mainly because it's the uneven tops of cliffs, but it's a way to get away from this mess."

"Unless you pay attention to the geography," Angela sighed. "I know you don't come around to town often, but between the town and my farm is a big drop-off. Even if you kept to the cliff tops, the river would stop you. It's a useless hideaway spot and nothing more."

"Quiet! We're almost at the town!" Owen exclaimed in a hushed tone. They finished circling the cliffside and the dirt path became concrete as they arrived in Harmonica Town. The town was eerily quiet, but the moans of the dead could be heard in the distance.

"What are we doing?" Kathy whispered.

"They're probably still by the clinic..." Kevin responded at a similar volume. "I was running for my life, so I didn't get a good look at how many were near there... but I'd say around three? If you include the ones that were chasing me, then it's at seven now."

"Should we head back to my farm? We could use some of my tools as weapons..." Angela suggested.

"I don't think so... time is of the essence here," Cain said.

"Someone will need to distract them so the others can get in," Hayden said. The group suddenly all turned to look at Kevin.

"What... why me?" Kevin asked, confused.

"I hate to say it, but you don't know anyone here. This is a small, small town, Kevin. In just a month I was well acquainted with everyone. You're the only one that can do it without breaking down," Angela said lowly.

"Fine..." Kevin sighed. Of course he didn't want to do it, but now really wasn't the time to argue about this. Gaining the ire of the townspeople (especially his sister) in such a crisis was also something that definitely was not favorable.

"Right then... just head straight down this path. You'll be right by the clinic, so keep going. You'll make a right before you leave town, walking along the lowest rung. Once you pass my bar there will be stairs that can take you to the middle rung... just walk past the inn and into the clinic. We'll take the stairs in front of the observatory that quickly lead to the clinic," Hayden said, pointing out where to go.

"And then what?" Kevin asked. "I can't exactly run off or run back to the church! You're not just abandoning me!

"Move quickly and get in the clinic," Owen suggested. "If they surround the place again, we'll make due."

"It's the best we can think of on such short notice," Angela said with a shrug. "Don't worry. It won't be long that you're out there."

"Yeah, yeah... let me free up the door," Kevin said, taking a deep breath as he walked down the path. The rest of the group inched closer to the observatory, laying low in case any of the zombies saw them while Kevin was distracting them.

"Good luck!" he heard Kathy quietly exclaim as he neared the clinic. That didn't make him feel any better. And as he approached, he saw the old woman that stopped his progress to the church earlier uselessly pounding away at the corner of the building. He hesitated, took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, back up as close to the school behind him as he could, and finally moved so that he was parallel with the walkway of the middle terrace. Seven zombies. So his guess had been right.

"HEY, YOU ROTTING PIECES OF SHIT, GET AW-ay from... there... eep," Kevin shouted, sounding loud and confident at first but his shouts quickly being smothered by fear as the seven zombies all slowly turned to look at him, their soulless white gaze piercing into him. They weren't real until now, but movies and games seriously did not do the real thing justice.

The chorus of moans began as the small crowd of undead slowly approached him. In addition to the exposed-guts-man, the old woman, and the two foppish fellows from before, he saw a man with dirty blonde hair wearing a hunting cap and an open brown button-up shirt, a young boy with spiky blonde hair adorned with a pair of goggles, and a short young woman wearing a white frilled dress stained with blood, her hair lavender with two curled side pigtails. Small flowers were in her hair. Kevin would have wondered more about that last one if he wasn't currently scared out of his wits.

He immediately bolted to the left and walked down to the lower terrace. He was in front of the Sonata Tailors, and he could see that the window had been broken, blood and shards of glass spread out in front of the store. Perhaps this is where that old woman and short girl worked... where they Candace's family?

Kevin turned around, slowly walking backwards as he watched the progress of the zombies. He couldn't get too far ahead, or else one of them might notice the others up above. The little boy had a chunk of his neck missing, and the young woman was missing a few fingers, blood-stained bone sticking out of the stumps. This was horrible...

The crowd was now in front of the tailors, Kevin on the bridge between the tailors and the Brass Bar. Now, he figured, was a good time to scram. He turned around and fled past the bar, seeing the stairs that Hayden mentioned. Within no time, he was at the clinic. He opened the door and slammed it shut, taking quick breaths as his nerves calmed themselves.

"You idiot! You didn't have to shut it!" Angela barked at him.

"Some thanks would be appreciated..." Kevin said bitterly, although he was mentally kicking himself for making too much noise.

"Thank you for doing that," Owen said. "I'm sorry it had to be you, but you took a great burden off of our shoulders."

"About time you people showed up," an unfamiliar voice said, this one a woman's. Kevin saw an old lady wearing a dress, her gray hair tied back in a bun. Her face was shrewd, a sharp nose making her seem mean. She was in front of a rotary phone, and just hung it up.

"You have a phone?" Kevin asked.

"Yes, but it's no good," the woman said with a sigh. "The police are completely useless. They think I'm joking. I am _not_ a joker," the woman added with a scowl. Looks like Julius was correct when he predicted that the police wouldn't believe their claims.

"Irene, where's Doctor Jin?" Cain asked.

"Upstairs. Come with me," the woman curtly said as she walked towards the back of the lobby, opening a door to the patient's ward. A large set of stairs was to the right of the two beds for patients. It led to a room with many desks that were cluttered with various books of all kinds. A man with black hair tied back into a ponytail was sitting on a chair in front of a small television set. He was wearing a doctor's coat, so he must be the Jin that Cain mentioned. With that name, he was probably of Japanese descent.

"Jin, others have showed up to rescue us. They say the others are in the church," Irene said. Jin was fervently flipping through the channels, his body language conveying frustration from his posture and the way he was hammering on the remote control.

"Nothing," he said lowly as he shut off the TV. He stood up from the chair and turned around to face the group. He was Asian, and he wore glasses. He also looked suspiciously familiar to Kevin, like he had seen him on a show before...

"Nothing?" Kathy repeated. Jin shook his head and responded, "Not a single sign of this anywhere else. News channels aren't reporting it and the tickers aren't saying a word... this outbreak started here."

"That's great and all, but we should get back to the church," Owen said. "You two are safe, but we need to check out the mines as soon as possible."

"I don't think that's going to be so easy..." Angela said, peering out a window to see that the zombies were approaching the clinic again.

"Great..." Kevin sighed. "I didn't _want_ to slam the door, but they're creepy!"

"You must be one of Angela's family members that she's told me about," Jin said, looking at Kevin's hair curl. "I'm sorry you arrived here at this time. I'm still trying to process it all."

"I think that's the case with everyone here," Irene said.

"Well then, since we're trapped in here for the moment... there are some things that I want to discuss. Let us head downstairs," Jin said. There were no objections from the group, although Owen was visibly frustrated with the fact that getting to the mines district would be delayed.

They descended the staircase, and Jin went straight to the point. As the group filed out into the patient's area.

"I want to study one of them. I'm not leaving until that has happened," he said bluntly.

"Study one of them? Are you nuts!?" Cain exclaimed incredulously.

"Why would you do that?" Kathy asked.

"You're crazy! They're zombies! We know how they work!" Kevin said.

"No, we do not," Jin said, shooting a glare at the others who were shocked by his stipulation. "We cannot be for certain in any way how they operate. What is happening right now is impossible. I am a doctor. I have dealt with some strange things during my career, but _nothing_ like this. This... disease, if you can even call it that... nothing spreads throughout the body that fast and takes over. At the _very_ minimum, there would be a twenty-four hour incubation period, but I've seen it with my own two eyes: those killed by these creatures are back up within seconds."

"God damn it!" Owen cursed as they heard pounding coming from outside. The zombies were attacking the building again. "How are we getting out of here now?"

"The window upstairs?" Angela suggested. "It drops down to the stairs connecting the upper and middle rung!"

"There. An escape. We're fine here," Jin said bluntly.

"Fine? We're not fine! There are unaccounted people up at the mines district!" Owen said in a low roar. "The longer we wait, the more we're in danger!"

"Should we split up some more?" Hayden suggested.

"I don't like this idea..." Kathy said with concern.

"I'm getting too old for this... your bickering is stressing me out..." Irene sighed as she opened the door to the lobby, keeping an eye out for the zombies. Sure enough, some could be seen pounding on the windows.

"I don't see how else to do this," Kevin said with a sigh. "I understand where Jin is coming from. Studying one of them could prove invaluable, and it can only be done in this building. But we all can't stay here when there are others still in danger."

"He's right," Angela said, surprising Kevin once more by continuing to agree with him. "Who's going to the mines and who is staying here?"

"Owen... I have a rifle at my ranch. If we make a quick detour, we'll be able to defend ourselves better at the mines district," Cain said.

"Cain, we may have guns, but we barely have any bullets. We never really needed them until now. You would waste the few rounds you have? We need to save that for an emergency," Hayden said.

"_This_ doesn't qualify as an emergency!?" Cain shouted, motioning towards the door to the lobby, where the zombies could be seen clawing at the windows.

"Your ranch is too out of the way," Owen said. "I'm not wasting any more time."

"I'm going with him," Kathy said with determination. Sensing an objection from her father, she added, "I can take care of myself, dad."

"...Very well. Stay safe, honey," Hayden said with a sigh, knowing that it was futile to argue with his daughter.

"The Horn Ranch may be out of the way, but my farm isn't. I have some tools we can use as weapons," Angela said. "So I'm coming with."

"Good luck, then," Kevin said to his sister as the two gave each other a farewell hug. Kathy did to same with Hayden. With no more words, the splinter group went upstairs and departed.

"Now what?" Irene asked, uncaring to the whole situation.

"Should we barricade the windows?" Hayden asked.

"When I went by the tailors, the windows were broken in. They're definitely capable of shattering them," Kevin said.

"There's not much in here that can block the windows, but we have two cabinets full of books in the lobby and a bed for checkups that can be moved. These can block the windows," Jin said.

They all entered the lobby, Jin pointing out the cabinet immediately to their left. Cain grabbed it and dumped all of the books it had onto the floor, picking it up and walking over to the windows. The rest of the group headed to a check-up area near the windows. Kevin helped Hayden move some screens out of the way of the second cabinet, as Jin and Irene picked up the bed. The second cabinet's books were dumped onto the floor and Kevin and Hayden started to move it.

The cabinets were soon secure in front of the windows, but as Jin and Irene were placing the window in front of the side window, the glass broke. Gill had punched through the window and grabbed Irene's arm! She yelled in fright as she struggled against the zombie's powerful grip. Jin tried pulling her away from the window, and Kevin, Cain, and Hayden immediately ran over to help.

She was pulled away from the window with their combined strength, Gill's arm sticking through the window, grasping at the air. The window wasn't broken all the way... yet. Kevin turned to Irene to see her clutching her left arm. Deep scratches covered her lower arm where Gill had grabbed her, his nails digging into her skin as she was pulled away. Blood seeped from the scratches, and there was a bite on her arm...

"No," she breathed in terror as she stared at her wound.

"Damn these things!" Cain swore in anger as he punched a wall in anger, slightly shaking the clinic.

"Restrain her," Jin said lowly.

"What? She's your own grandmother!" Hayden exclaimed, knowing what the doctor was planning.

"Restrain her!" Jin shouted, tears visible in his eyes.

"No... I understand..." Irene said. Cain and Hayden led her back into the patient's room, laying her down on one of the beds. Jin entered with some plastic ties that he used to bind her wrists and ankles to the bars of the bed's frame.

"What do we do now?" Kevin asked meekly as he entered the room.

"I'm going to my ranch. I'm getting the gun," Cain growled as he suddenly took off.

"Damn it Cain, get back here!" Hayden exclaimed.

"If he wants to recklessly endanger himself, let him," Jin said coldly as he sat beside his grandmother. Already her skin was paling and her breaths became more labored. Jin felt her forehead. "She was bitten just seconds ago, and she's already running a fever."

Hayden stopped in his place. He knew there was no stopping Cain... the man was just too strong.

"I... love you... grandson..." Irene said weakly. There was a short spasm, and then she was still. Jin held back a sob as he checked her pulse.

"Time of death... one minute after bite..." he announced quietly, his voice cracking, being on the verge of tears. Kevin and Hayden were shocked at how quick she had passed.

Jin wiped his eyes as he stared at a clock on the wall. A minute passed without any event.

"She's moving!" Hayden exclaimed as he pointed at Irene. Jin looked at his grandmother as her eyes opened once more, completely white in color, devoid of any feeling or soul. A low rasp came from the woman's throat as she cocked her head at her grandson and bared her teeth at him. She struggled to grab him, but could not in her current condition.

"Time of reanimation... two minutes after bite," Jin said quietly.

* * *

ALIVE

Angela, Anissa, Candace, Hanna, Hayden, Jin, Julius, Kathy, Kevin, Maya, Owen, Perry, Renee, Ruth, the Witch (not present), the Wizard (not present)

DEAD

Chase, Colleen, Jake, Yolanda

UNDEAD

Barbara (?), Chloe, Craig, Gill, Hamilton, Irene, Luna, Mira, Ozzie, Paolo, Pascal, Ramsey, Shelly, Simon, Taylor

LOST

Bo, Cain, Calvin, Dale, Luke, Phoebe, Samson, Selena, Sue, Toby.


	4. Tension

Corpse Harvest, Chapter 4:

"...Do you think they're okay?" Maya asked anxiously, breaking the silence in the church. Ever since the six of them left, she had been nervously pacing around, peeking out of the church door every now and then in hopes that she would see them returning, safe and sound, with others in tow. "They were just going to the clinic, right?"

"Knowing my husband, he wouldn't waste time coming back here to check if anyone was safe..." Hanna sighed in frustration. "He'd make sure to get the job done before anything else."

"You can't forget Owen," Julius said. "A firebrand like him is going to want to help out everyone without any delay."

"So what? We just sit around worrying ourselves to death? What if they never come back?" Maya asked, her voice rising as she became more panicked.

"Calm down," Anissa said in a soothing tone. "We need to have faith in them. But we must also be rational... there is a possibility that they can be in danger, or worse. We need to decide on how long we're going to wait before we assume the worst."

"Are we _really_ discussing this?" Renee asked.

"Why not? What, are we just going to sit here and pray uselessly like Perry over there?" Ruth said in a bitter tone.

"Mother!" Anissa exclaimed in shock.

"No God or Goddess would allow this to happen!" Ruth cried out. She looked as if she was about to say more, but she could feel the unease in the air and realized that whatever she said would just make things worse, so she held her tongue.

"She's right..." Candace said quietly after a brief moment of silence, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her blouse. "We can't just stay here."

"You want to leave this place?" Perry asked as he finished mumbling his prayers. "A safe haven from those demons out there? Do you have a death wish?"

"It's only safe for now," Maya said lowly. "I was trapped in the inn while they pounded away at the door to the room I was hiding in. They broke in shortly before I was rescued by Kevin... I was hiding under the bed at the time, but they would have found me... this place is only safe because they don't know we're in here."

"Windows are nothing to them..." Candace said, her voice and gaze distant. "They'll just break right in... right through the glass..."

"We can't stay here anyway. Not forever," Renee said with a fearful pout. "There's nothing here to eat. I'm hungry... I'm sure some of you are, too. We can't just sit in here and starve."

"There's also not really anywhere comfortable to sleep. This church isn't fit for the amount of people here," Hanna said. "Six pews and Perry's bed... that's it. And the pews and floor don't look like comfortable sleeping arrangements."

"I agree. Unless we send people out to get food and sleeping bags or something, we can't really stay here," Anissa said.

"But we're only here temporarily anyway!" Perry exclaimed. "Right now, those brave six are rescuing those in danger. Once they're back, we'll decide what to do... and it will likely involve getting out of this town."

"But we have no idea of knowing if they're coming back or not, as we were talking about earlier," Julius said with a sigh and a shrug.

"How about the inn?" Renee suggested. "Maya did say that she and Kevin took care of the zombies in there. It has a lot of beds, and a kitchen, too."

"Don't forget enough showers and bathrooms..." Candace said in her usual demure tone.

"That sounds like the best place to move to," Anissa affirmed.

"No!" Maya shouted. "You shouldn't go inside there! You don't want to see my family like that! _I_ don't want to see my family like that! And Chase, too..."

"But they need a proper burial, don't they, sweetie?" Hanna asked, feeling for the young girl. "We can't just leave them there like that to rot..."

"I'm not letting some corpses dictate whether or not we move to a better place," Ruth snapped.

"But is it better?" Perry asked. "We would be in the middle of the town, right next to those demons! You are taking luxury and convenience over safety and security!"

"We are still acting as if they're going to come back through that door at any moment! We cannot claim that with any certainty!" Renee exclaimed. "This is all about survival now. If someone goes outside, we can't be sure that they'll come back..."

"So what, we all just blindly go outside and take the inn?" Anissa asked. "That sounds needlessly dangerous. We have to approach this in the right way."

"You _do_ realize that what you just said applies to the people that go to the inn, right?" Julius asked.

"I am well aware of the hypocrisy in what I said, but it's a risk worth taking," Renee said with determination.

"So what, are we sending a group out to make sure the inn is safe, then?" Maya asked. "And you said to give my family and Chase a proper burial, but... the cemetery is kind of far away. Are we really going to... drag them here?"

"Unless you burn the bodies... that's the only way," Perry said. "If you do bring them here, I will dig their graves, no matter how... _disgusting_ the condition of their bodies may be." He added with revulsion, shuddering at the mental images in his head.

"Are you sure you're up to that task?" Julius asked the pastor, raising an eyebrow. Perry did not answer.

"Then what are we doing?" Hanna asked. "How many are going out there?"

"We have eight here... I think three, maybe four, is a good number to investigate the inn. If it's too dangerous, they should run right back here," Anissa said. "Those things are slow, after all."

"And lead those demons right to us?" Perry asked.

"That... could be a problem," Anissa said with a sigh, "but I can't think of anything else."

"I'll go," Renee said.

"Are you sure, dear?" Hanna asked with worry.

"I'll be fine, mom. Trust me," Renee said with an assuring smile.

"I'll go, too," Anissa said.

"Absolutely not!" Ruth cried out, standing up in objection. "I've already lost Craig and Taylor. I _will not_ lose you, too!"

"You won't lose me, mother," Anissa replied sternly. "I'll come back right away and tell everyone if it's safe enough."

"I'm coming," Maya said. "I don't want to see their bodies... I don't want to be reminded of what happened to them. But it's my family. I love them. I love Chase. I just can't leave them there."

"Then I'll tag along, too. You ladies will need some muscle to help you out!" Julius exclaimed brightly, flexing an arm as he made that statement.

"What muscle? And what's with that attitude?" Ruth snapped.

"It's called humor, you shrew. It's to lighten the situation," Julius growled at her, his jovial countenance suddenly becoming quite icy.

"Enough! This is no time to be bickering amongst ourselves!" Perry firmly stated.

"He's right. Let's be on our way, then," Julius said, reverting back to his usual cheerful demeanor as he walked towards the church doors. "We have little time to waste."

Maya moved towards the church doors, while Renee and Anissa hugged their mothers. After doing so, Renee walked to the group. Anissa was doing so, but her mother called out to her. "Please, my sweet Anissa... come back. I can't lose you..."

Anissa paused, turned her head around, firmly stated, "This isn't just about _you_, mother," and then left the church with the others. They then began walking towards town.

"That was kind of cold, don't you think?" Renee asked.

"She needs to stop being selfish. We all have to work together if we want to survive... this includes thinking about others before yourself," Anissa said with a dreary sigh.

"I'm scared..." Maya said with a whimper as they drew closer to the town, the ghastly groans of the dead becoming audible on the wind.

"Just keep calm... and quiet, of course. Let's just hope nobody else has joined them..." Julius said in a hushed voice as they rounded the cliffside and entered Harmonica Town. Right away they could see that the clinic was surrounded by the undead. Julius signaled for the group to follow him into the Wizard's observatory. At least, that would be the case if it wasn't locked. Julius shook his head and signaled for the group to lay low for now. They all assumed prone positions.

"What do we do now?" Maya asked in a panicked whisper.

"We keep calm, for starters," Anissa said.

"But both ways to the inn will get us really close to those things!" Maya quietly cried as she fidgeted about.

"Do we go back and tell the others what's happened?" Renee asked.

"The people in that clinic are in danger, and we were the only ones that volunteered to go out here. The others are cowards. We have to think of something," Julius said.

"Will someone have to lure them away? That sounds terrifying..." Renee said with a frown.

Right after Renee asked that question, a bloodcurdling scream broke out, echoing over the moans of the dead.

"It sounded like it came from the docks!" Anissa exclaimed quietly. Julius raised himself up into a crouching position to better see down in that direction.

"It's Selena..." he said. "And her parents... but we won't need to worry about saving them..."

Julius watched as the redheaded woman ran pas the Brass Bar, pausing in terror as she noted the zombies around the Choral Clinic.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!?" she screamed in fright. This drew a few of the undead towards her.

"SELENA!" Maya yelled, suddenly standing up and waving her arms to gain her attention. "WE'RE UP HERE!"

"What are you doing!?" Julius exclaimed in a shocked whisper.

"Letting her know we're here!" Maya snapped back.

"But now _they_ know we're here..." Renee said anxiously, slowly standing up, as she pointed towards the staircase near the observatory. Gill and Simon were slowly walking up the staircase towards their direction, with Hamilton flanking them from the town's main path. And Craig and Taylor were heading towards Selena, with Ozzie, Paolo, and Pascal coming up behind her, Selena's parents bloody and dead on the ground behind them, but they wouldn't be still for long...

* * *

ALIVE

Angela, Anissa, Candace, Hanna, Hayden, Jin, Julius, Kathy, Kevin, Maya, Owen, Perry, Renee, Ruth, Selena, the Witch (not present), the Wizard (not present)

DEAD

Chase, Colleen, Jake, Yolanda

UNDEAD

Barbara (?), Chloe, Craig, Gill, Hamilton, Irene, Luna, Mira, Ozzie, Paolo, Pascal, Ramsey, Samson, Shelly, Simon, Sue, Taylor

LOST

Bo, Cain, Calvin, Dale, Luke, Phoebe, Toby.


	5. Loss

Corpse Harvest, Chapter 5:

"Are you okay, Jin?" Kevin asked the doctor, who had spent the last minute or two staring at his zombified grandmother struggling against her restraints. Having that creature in the same room as them was disturbing, but no more so than the agitated growls outside as the other zombies hammered on the clinic's walls with their hands.

"I'm fine," Jin said with unnerving calmness as he stood up from the chair by the bed Irene was on, "I just needed a moment to make peace with what has happened, and to distance that creature before me from my grandmother."

"Already there's something very unusual about these creatures," Jin continued as he walked over to Irene and shoved her head down onto the pillow of the bed. He placed two fingers against her neck, and quickly withdrew both of his arms before she could try and bite him. "As I thought. Though I have seen some of them, like Simon, bearing wounds that no living person could survive for long, I just confirmed that these creatures are dead... she has no pulse. But they still move, and they still breathe."

"How do you know that?" Hayden asked from his post in watching the barricades.

"They're still making noise," Jin said. "Rasping and groaning... vocalizations require working lungs. Muscles need oxygen to move. And the entire body needs a nervous system to even function... this is unlike any disease I've ever read about. And yet..."

Jin walked over to the table next to Irene's bed and took a scalpel from it. With it, he slashed Irene's wrist open. Blood slowly crept out of the wound.

"This is fresh blood, but it's not flowing anywhere near as fast... I just don't get it... and they don't register the pain!"

"Okay... how do they find us? What about those eyes? I mean, pupils absorb light, right? That's how we can see? They don't have anything... it's all white," Kevin said.

"Yes... if we're going off observation alone, it is true their vision would only be white," Jin said. "The irides are gone, too... I don't even know if they can identify lighting levels. Regardless, there is some reason these creatures are agitated and trying to get us at this moment. Perhaps in some bizarre manner they still can see... we can't rule out anything with these creatures. Or maybe they're tracking us with sound or smell."

"We're not going to stay here much longer, are we?" Hayden asked with a bit of worry.

"I'd like to conduct more tests, but-" Jin began, but was cut off by a loud bang from the other room. They had broken through the barricades and were now in the lobby. Hayden quickly shut the door and braced himself against it.

"Then that settles it. Looks like we're done here," Jin said as he took the scalpel and jammed it into Irene's eye, killing her once more. "We at least know the movies are right with one thing."

Jin walked over to an IV stand and pulled off the top part with the hooks. "There's no time to unscrew the wheeled base..." he said to himself. He looked at Irene's body. "I'll be sure to give your body the proper treatment it deserves later, grandma..." he said. He then shouted to the others, "Come on, let's head upstairs!"

It was at that moment that they heard a scream outside.

"Someone else is in danger!" Kevin exclaimed. "We can't just leave them there!"

Hayden could hear past the door to the lobby. The zombies were moving away. "Whoever just screamed gave us more than one way out of here," Hayden said.

"Kevin! Take this!" Jin shouted as he tossed a doctor's bag full of supplies at him. The startled boy fumbled with the bag, but didn't drop it. "We're still heading through the upstairs window. It's the safest exit," he added.

The three quickly bolted up the stairs into Jin's room. Hayden grabbed a big, thick book on Jin's desk for self defense as he threw open the window. The undead could be heard right outside, but Jin leaped into action, jumping through the open window with the IV stand. He pivoted in midair and thrust the wheeled end at the very close Simon. He was pushed back into Gill, and the two zombies tumbled down the stairs. Hayden and Kevin quickly followed.

"Selena! We found her! She's in trouble!" Renee exclaimed as she pointed down at the lower rung of the town.

"We are, too!" Julius shouted in fright, pointing at Hamilton shambling towards them from the town's main path. The portly man suddenly lunged forward and tackled Maya to the ground. She screamed as she struggled against the former mayor on top of her, kicking at him and trying to hold his head back from biting her.

Kevin launched into action, bolting straight past the others towards Maya. The girl had saved his life, and he felt great pity for her... he refused to let her meet her end here!

"GET THE FUCK OFF OF HER!" Kevin yelled as he drove a forceful kick into Hamilton's side, followed up by smacking his head with the doctor's bag still clutched in his hands. It didn't budge him that much, but it gave Maya enough leverage to scamper out from under him.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't jostle the supplies in there," Jin said calmly as he ran over and forcefully pushed back Hamilton with the IV stand. He turned to the others, "Come on! Let's get moving before he's back up!"

Hayden briefly considered putting the mayor down as he ran past, but he decided it would be too dangerous with just a thick textbook. It didn't seem like the most effective weapon, and the thought of stomping on his head did not please him one bit.

"Get back to the church!" Hayden said to the four that came back into town. Renee, Anissa, and Julius took this chance to do just that, but Maya stayed behind. "Get going!" Hayden urged her.

"No... we came here to take the inn..." Maya said quietly. "And I want to help Selena..."

"Selena! Run past them! You have enough room!" Jin said to the shocked girl, his stance suggesting that he would be ready at any moment to run forward and help her if she was grabbed.

Hearing his voice seemed to snap her out of it, and she nodded. She stared at fright at the two women before her, but quickly sprinted right past them and united with the group.

"But... mom and dad..." Selena said quietly as she looked back at the docks. She seemed to be a belly dancer of some sort due to her short purple shirt that exposed her midriff and her lavender genie pants. She was a brown-skinned girl with vibrant red hair kept up in a ponytail.

"They're gone... I'm sorry," Jin said lowly.

"We're not getting the inn back at this time. We need to fall back to the church!" Hayden exclaimed.

"And we better hurry so we can lose them!" Kevin said with worry.

"We can't..." Maya said, sobbing lightly. "I can't..."

"What are you talking about!?" Kevin shouted, but he got a good look at the girl for the first time since this brief incident happened. She was tightly clenching her right hand, but that was not enough to mask the blood on it.

Kevin felt his stomach sink deep down into his body. No... Maya... she had been bitten?

"Oh, God..." Kevin said, at a loss for words. "No..."

"We have to go!" Jin shouted. "We have to leave her!"

"Leave her here? But why?" Selena asked, panicking at the sudden cruelty and the intensity of the approaching undead.

"You get bitten by them, you change into them! And if we don't hurry, they're going to get us! It can't be helped!" Hayden shouted.

"No..." Selena breathed, realizing the fate of her parents. She didn't want to leave Maya behind, but she had no choice. She wanted to live, so she followed Jin and Hayden. Jin pushed Hamilton back down with another thrust of the IV stand.

"Kevin, come on!" Jin shouted. Kevin wanted to move, but his legs would not listen. All he could do was stare at Maya and internally beat himself up over not being able to safe her. He saw her crying, and couldn't help but do the same.

"It's okay... I don't feel too good, but it's okay..." Maya said quietly, feigning a smile in an attempt to bolster Kevin's spirits. "Go..."

"I cannot thank you enough for saving me back there. I only wish that I could have saved you from this," Kevin said before he turned around and backed away, soon disappearing around the cliff with the rest. Maya was now standing in the middle of the path, with the zombies closing in from all sides.

Maya began walking towards the Ocarina Inn. She was already marked for death... there was no reason to avoid being bitten anymore. She felt disoriented and weak, but she refused to die out here. Simon and Gill were in her way. They may have bit her as she walked by, they may have not. She was too numb to tell, so she just shoved them away.

She managed to reach the door and close it. She then sank to her knees... she made it to her home. Here she quietly sobbed to herself as it fully hit her that she had lost everyone she had cared about, and then was abandoned by everyone else, including Kevin... and now she was going to die and become one of those monsters...

Suddenly it dawned upon Maya just how hungry she was. She hadn't eaten anything at all ever since this whole mess happened. She had no idea why she was feeling so insatiable, but there was an immense pain from her gut. She needed to fill it... the pain was unbearable.

She looked around, and her eyes fell upon Chase's body. For some reason, seeing it didn't dishearten her. His smashed face, with exposed bone and brain collected around a pool of blood... it did not bother her at all. In fact, it looked... delicious...

* * *

ALIVE

Angela, Anissa, Candace, Hanna, Hayden, Jin, Julius, Kathy, Kevin, Owen, Perry, Renee, Ruth, Selena, the Witch (not present), the Wizard (not present)

DEAD

Chase, Colleen, Irene, Jake, Yolanda

UNDEAD

Barbara (?), Chloe, Craig, Gill, Hamilton, Luna, Maya, Mira, Ozzie, Paolo, Pascal, Ramsey, Samson, Shelly, Simon, Sue, Taylor

LOST

Bo, Cain, Calvin, Dale, Luke, Phoebe, Toby.


	6. Garmon Mines

Corpse Harvest, Chapter 6:

"My toolbox is over there," Angela said, pointing to a rather large box with several compartments against the back wall of her house. It looked more like a small shelf than a box. "We can definitely use some of those things for self-defense. I'll be back very soon... I have to check on my animals."

Angela slipped out of her house and peeked inside of her chicken coop and barn. The animals were still safe and sound. She sighed in relief, but the worry about their fates still hung over her head. There was no real way to guarantee their safety at this time... there was a possibility that she could return later to a bloody mess in one or both of these buildings, her former friends feasting on the remains of the animals she cared for.

Well, there was nothing she could do about that. She tried to put it out of her mind as she turned back towards her house. She spotted her small field with a few crops growing... it wasn't likely that they would get the care they needed with this crisis. Rain would be the only way to ensure they were watered, so they would likely wilt... a waste of money. But that didn't matter right now.

"I see we have what we need," Angela said as she returned to her house to see Owen resting a sledgehammer over his shoulder, and Kathy holding a woodcutting axe in both hands. Angela walked over to her toolbox and pulled out a hoe.

"This is a lot heavier than I thought it would be..." Kathy said as the three walked out of Angela's house and took the path circling around the lake on her property that led to the Garmon Mines district.

"Hopefully we won't need to use these," Owen said with a frown as he mentally pictured facing Chloe or Ramsey and having to attack them with the hammer.

"I don't think we're going to be that lucky..." Angela said. "But let's approach with caution and keep quiet. Maybe fortune will be with us."

Owen and Kathy nodded, and the three left Angela's house. Owen took the lead as the three took the northern path that circled around the lake on Angela's property. The roar of a waterfall was heard as they crossed the bridge over the river that split Angela's property from the Garmon Mines district. Owen stopped after they crossed the bridge.

"I don't see anybody..." Owen said as he looked forward.

"Then let's keep moving and hope it stays that way!" Kathy exclaimed in a quiet voice.

They continued moving through the district. It was unnatural for this area to be so quiet. With the carpenters, general store, jewelers, and blacksmiths all in one area, the place was usually bustling with noise as the craftsmen produced their wares. Now it was deathly quiet, with the distant roar of the waterfall being the only constant audible sound. There appeared to be some quiet rustling from the woods behind the houses, but the three decided it was best not to stick around for too long. Owen went into the carpenter's store, but soon returned empty handed. There was no sign of them.

They moved forward, Owen pointing out some blood on the ground and steering clear of it. Angela and Kathy realized that the spot was likely where Chloe met her end. They entered the mines without any incident. They paused for a bit to let their eyes adjust to the much dimmer lit caves.

"Do you think Calvin and Phoebe would have gone up or down?" Kathy asked.

"They're usually in the upper mines. That area is not as excavated as the lower mines," Owen stated.

They took the right path, which led to a carved-out sloped that went into a large open cavernous area. Scaffolding had been constructed in various places to reach various tunnels, natural or artificial. The mines had been here a long time, and men from all over the island came here annually to help out this village and keep a portion of the profit.

"Phoebe! Calvin! Are you here?" Angela called out, her voice echoing through the area. "Ugh, they could be in any one of those tunnels!" she added in a normal volume.

"Over here!" Phoebe called out to them. It was a great relief to know that they were okay. The three followed the direction of her voice and soon saw her and Calvin emerging from one of the newer tunnels. Phoebe was wiping her face with a towel, and Calvin had a towel draped over his neck... it looked like they had been busy mining.

"Thank the goddess you're okay!" Owen exclaimed as Calvin and Phoebe descended the scaffolding.

"Is something the matter?" Calvin asked with a bit of concern.

Angela realized at this moment that what they were going to say would sound utterly ridiculous.

"Something happened today," Kathy said lowly, frowning as she tried to break the news in a believable manner. "Quite a few people are dead."

"Are you messing with me?" Phoebe asked defensively. "Because if this is your idea of a joke, you need to reevaluate your sense of humor."

"Angela and Kathy pulling a prank, I could see. But Owen?" Calvin noted, his countenance becoming worried.

"Oh no, you're right!" Phoebe exclaimed.

_Thanks for the character judgment there,_ Angela thought bitterly to herself.

"It's crazy, but zombies... they are real," Owen said, remaining as calm as possible to convince them that he was telling the truth. "Quite a few of us are safe, holed up in the church. But quite a few of us are out there as walking corpses now... You two were some of the very few unaccounted for."

"What? Do you expect me to believe that?" Phoebe asked. Sure, Owen was telling her this information, but that was a hard pill to swallow.

"Either this is a prank, or I'm dreaming," Calvin said with a sigh.

"This isn't a joke, you two!" Angela shouted. "The _only_ appropriate time for such a prank would be around Halloween! It's spring! This is real! People are dead!"

"You _are_ armed..." Phoebe noted.

"You have to believe us!" Kathy urged the two.

"We haven't found Toby, the Carpenters, or the Toucan Islanders yet," Owen said quietly. "Chloe, Ramsey, Mira, Gill, Mayor Hamilton, Luna, Shelly, Ozzie, Pascal, Paolo, Craig, Taylor... they're no longer themselves. Chase and Maya's family are dead. They were those monsters, but they were killed again. And Phoebe, I'm sorry... but your father is also one of those monsters now. We don't know about your mother."

"I... I don't know what to make of this," Phoebe said, shaking her head. "I can't believe this until I see it. You better hope that you're not joking..."

"We're not!" Kathy cried out. "Do you think Owen would joke about his own family dying? Or even let someone else do that? Let's just go already! The longer we wait, the higher the chance that we'll lose more people!"

"Well... if this is true, we'll need some way of protecting ourselves," Calvin said as he ran back up the scaffolding into the tunnel he and Phoebe were in earlier. He soon emerged with the pickaxes they had been using. He returned to the group and handed Phoebe hers.

With the group bolstered, they left the mines, Owen leading them once more. Before they reached the exit, Owen signaled for them to stop. He peered around the corner of the exit and shielded his eyes from the sun as he looked to see if any of the dead were out there.

"I don't see any..." he said quietly. "Let's go."

The five left the mines and entered the sunlight again.

"Blood..." Phoebe gasped as she saw the ground. "Oh, shit!" she exclaimed as any doubt that this was a joke left her. She sprinted towards the general store without any warning.

"Phoebe! Don't run off on your own!" Angela exclaimed in a hushed tone as she chased after the shocked girl. Luckily she didn't go far- she was merely peering into the windows of her home. The other three followed the two that broke off.

"Mom..." Phoebe whimpered as she looked into the window. Inside she could see her mother, Barbara, definitely as one of the walking dead. She was standing behind the counter, as usual; only her head was lolling forward, her bangs shielding her eyes. A wound on her neck that no person could survive showed her newfound nature.

"I'm so sorry..." Angela said, placing a comforting hand on Phoebe's shoulder.

"I can get rid of her if you want me to," Owen said sadly.

"No," Phoebe said, taking off her glasses to wipe the tears from her eyes. "She's not harming anyone. This is a major scientific discovery. We can't just get rid of them all... that would be a waste of knowledge."

"Are you serious?" Kathy asked in disbelief. "You and that Doctor... you're both mad!"

"Look at her! She's standing behind the counter, like she's waiting for customers! What if the people they used to be are still in there somewhere?" Phoebe said defensively.

"Yep... definitely dreaming," Calvin said with a sigh.

"This isn't a dream, Calvin," Owen said. "If you knew this was a dream, then you would be lucid dreaming and could do whatever you want."

"Maybe so, but if this wasn't a dream and was real, then there is no way I would be this calm and in control... if you catch my drift," Calvin said with unease.

"I understand," Owen said with a sigh.

"Quiet!" Angela commanded in a hushed tone. Everyone immediately shut up. The waterfall was still audible in the distance, but a noise in closer proximity to them was rustling from the woods behind the buildings. The same noises that they had heard arriving in the Garmon Mines district, but the rustling was louder.

"Is that-" Phoebe whispered.

"Shh!" Angela hissed, cutting her off. Part of the mountain was directly behind these buildings, but that ended right behind the very store they were standing in front of, and the forest was just around the corner. It was then that they heard a woman quietly groaning.

"Mira?' Calvin asked quietly, recognizing the voice.

As if on cue, Mira stumbled out of the woods and into the open area. The five remained completely still and as quiet as possible to avoid being detected by her. Mira seemed to have been in a struggle before she had been bit, as her scarf was disheveled and there was a large rip in her skirt. A chunk was missing from the back of her left ankle, and her left shoe was missing, too. She didn't seem to notice them, but it was likely that their talking earlier had drawn her over to this area. All it would take for her to spot them is for her to turn to the right. Fortunately, she stopped moving, standing in a slouched position. Only quiet, raspy breaths could be heard from her open mouth.

None of the group dare made a sound. It was much too quiet for any kind of verbal communication. Angela was closest to Mira and was considering whether or not it was safe to try and sneak up on her and take her out.

Angela took a deep breath, made some meaningless gestures to get the group's attention, and then pointing at her hoe and then Mira. She then carefully crept towards the still zombie. She raised the farming tool as she got closer to the undead woman.

Everyone jumped as a sudden loud thud was heard from the general store door. Barbara had apparently taken notice of the people outside and was now pounding at the door. Kathy, Owen, Phoebe, and Calvin backed away from the door. With their cover blown, there was no need to keep quiet anymore.

"Angela!" Owen called out. There was no need for the warning, as Angela was already backing away from Mira, who had turned around as soon as Barbara made the noise. Mira's lips pulled back as she bared her teeth and approached Angela, making low, hungry growls. Ramsey emerged from the woods behind Mira, three separate bite wounds on one of his arms.

"We're surrounded!" Calvin warned the others. Creeping out of the door of the blacksmith's store, which was ajar, was Chloe. The poor girl had her belly torn open, some intestines dangling from the wound. Her clothes were stained in blood, and a nasty bump was on her head from when she was grabbed from behind and pulled to the ground.

"The mine cart!" Phoebe exclaimed. "We can take it to the church!"

They quickly fell back, moving around Chloe. They were armed, but nobody had the guts to take down the rotting facsimiles of people close to them in this tight-knit community. Owen was the last to head to the mine cart, but Chloe grabbed on to his sash, causing Owen to trip and fall.

"Chloe... I'm so sorry..." he said as he stared face to face with his cousin. She was going to tear into his side, and his sledgehammer was just out of reach. Kathy was running towards him to save him, but she wouldn't get to him in time. Owen closed his eyes and braced himself for the pain.

Instead a loud crack was heard as a bullet pierced through Chloe's head. Kathy helped the stunned Owen up, who quickly regained his senses. The image of Chloe, face down, with part of her head blown open was not a pleasant one.

"We have to go!" Kathy urged him. Owen's feet moved on their own as they approached the mine cart.

"Oh come on! You're not seriously going to just leave me after saving your life, are you?" Cain called out from the other side of the mines district, a hunting rifle in hand. He pulled back the bolt, a casing flying out of the gun, and readied it for another shot, but it would not be fired now. It would just be a waste of the few bullets that he had. He sprinted towards the mine cart. Only Mira was in his way, but she was knocked on her ass as he slammed the butt of the rifle into her chest.

It was a tight fit, but they were all safely in the mine cart. Phoebe activated it, and they began descending the railway that led to the church.

"Thank you Cain... you saved my life," Owen said.

"It's what we do..." Cain said. "A damn shame that had to happen to such a sweet girl. This is going to hit me hard when the adrenaline fades..."

"You shouldn't have killed her... if she was just sick, or... or..." Phoebe said.

"Let's just try not to think about that possibility," Kathy said with a frown.

"Wait a minute, you were in the clinic!" Angela exclaimed. "What happened there?"

"I don't know... I bailed to get this gun. Irene got bit and turned, but they restrained her. The place was still holding up, one of the bastards just grabbed her through a window," Cain said.

"Damn you! Is my brother safe?" Angela growled.

"Hey! If it wasn't for me getting this gun, Owen would have to be put down! I'm sure they'll be fine! We'll find out shortly when we're back at the church!" Cain said defensively.

"If they're not okay..." Angela said lowly as she glared at Cain.

"Everyone just calm down... we don't need to be fighting," Phoebe said.

"Not that there's any room to fight in here," Calvin said, feeling rather uncomfortable as he was pressed up against a corner of the mine cart. Well, somewhat uncomfortable... After all, he was being squished by Phoebe and Kathy... maybe this dream wasn't so bad after all.

Once they arrived at the church grounds, they got out of the mine cart one by one. They had no way of knowing who was alive and who was not. If the trip to the clinic had gone awry, then others in the church may have gone into town to try and help. The only answer was behind those church doors. Angela threw them open, hoping that everyone was safe and sound...

* * *

ALIVE

Angela, Anissa, Cain, Calvin, Candace, Hanna, Hayden, Jin, Julius, Kathy, Kevin, Owen, Perry, Phoebe, Renee, Ruth, Selena, the Witch (not present), the Wizard (not present)

DEAD

Chase, Chloe, Colleen, Irene, Jake, Yolanda

UNDEAD

Barbara, Craig, Gill, Hamilton, Luna, Maya, Mira, Ozzie, Paolo, Pascal, Ramsey, Samson, Shelly, Simon, Sue, Taylor

LOST

Bo, Dale, Luke, Toby


	7. Reconquest

Corpse Harvest, Chapter 7:

Kevin was leaning against a wall of the church, his head bowed low as he stared at the ground, his eyes fixated on it but his mind elsewhere. The rest of the group had gone through the course of relief at those that returned to the church and were now focused on worrying about the rest of the people out there. There was little sorrow over the losses of Irene, Samson, Sue, and Maya.

Maya... the guilt of being unable to protect her was biting at him hard. She saved his life, and he couldn't even return the favor. Sure, he had rescued her, but that didn't ease the pain he was feeling. She had a form of security in him, and he failed her. He failed in being her guardian, and he failed in being her savior from a fate worse than death.

She was just left behind back there. Was that the right course of action? The zombies were closing in on them, sure, but to just abandon her? And now she was out there, walking as one of those mindless bloodthirsty freaks. It just wasn't right...

The others in the church barely batted an eye at the news of her death. There was a bit of shock, sure, but the safety of the living was what mattered to them, not the added ranks to the dead. It dawned upon Kevin that their roles had switched. He had arrived to this village as the indifferent outsider, unfamiliar with the people and relatively unfazed by their loss. The people of Harmonica Town, though, were torn apart as they watched their friends, their families, their neighbors become these monsters. But now the urgency of the situation had made them adapt. They were rapidly distancing the zombies from their living counterparts, and shrugging off the losses of others to survive. He, on the other hand, was bonding with these villagers in this crisis. Every death that happened hit him fully, wracking him with pain.

"Thank the Goddess you have returned safely!" Kevin heard Perry exclaim as a clamor of voices began to speak. This snapped him out of his trance. He gazed up to see that Angela, Owen, and Kathy had returned with Cain and two other people he was unfamiliar with: a rather handsome man with mid-length dirty blond hair wearing a brown explorer hat, a half-unbuttoned tan shirt with rolled up sleeves, and brown jeans; and a bespectacled girl with short green hair wearing a lighter green work shirt and darker green shorts. He could make out the names "Calvin" and "Phoebe" in the conversations being held. No doubt Angela and her group would be informed of the losses suffered before she could talk to him. Sure enough, he saw brief looks of sorrow that faded all too quickly.

"Is something bothering you?" Angela asked as she walked up to her baby brother. Kevin had been in deep thought and was startled by her sudden approach. The fact that she couldn't identify the problem stung him.

"It's Maya... I couldn't protect her..." Kevin said lowly.

"Don't beat yourself up over it. There was nothing you could do, from the sounds of it. We'll just have to be more careful," Angela said.

"Do you even care? Does anyone here care that she's gone?" Kevin asked, his voice rising in anger.

"Of course we care! Maya was a good friend of mine! It's just that we don't have time to be sitting around moping! This is about survival, brother!" Angela exclaimed indignantly. "If we mourned, then we would have no time to fight."

"Fight? What are you talking about?"

"You've been lost in thought, but we're planning on taking the inn. I think we can pull this off, come on!" Angela urged him. Kevin sighed and followed her to the middle of the church, where everyone had gathered together, some standing in a circular formation, some sitting on the edge of the pews.

"So that's it, then? We're just going to kill whoever gets in our way?" he heard the new girl that he assumed was named Phoebe ask with disbelief as he walked up. Looks like he missed much of the planning stage.

"Your theory may have some merit, but we have no way of proving that right now," Jin said. "All I know for certain is that I saw none of my grandmother when she came back to life."

"We need that inn to sustain ourselves! It's the only building that can house all of us, and it has plenty of food and a kitchen, to boot!" Cain exclaimed. "And we're not going to let any maybes slow us down!"

"Sorry, but what's the plan?" Kevin asked.

"Finally you join us," Owen said. "I thought of a way that we could arm enough people to take back the inn. Cain has his rifle, and Angela gave us those," he pointed towards the corner of the church, showing a hoe, woodcutting axe, and a sledgehammer resting against the walls, "so with three strong people at the front with Jin protecting us with his IV stand and Cain covering us with his rifle... we should be able to take down anybody in our way. But to be safe, we can go into the mayor's house."

"What would be there?" Kevin asked, "And how is approaching any of these buildings safe?"

"Well, it's the way the town is set up," the man Kevin suspected was named Calvin interjected, "The uppermost terrace leads to the Wizard's observatory, but there's one parallel to it that leads to the roof of the mayor's house. I don't think any of us here know why, but we can walk across the roof and drop down in front of his door."

"He's bound to have some cutlery in there. All we need then is some tape and cleaning utensils. Remove the head and tape the knife to one end and we have makeshift spears that any of us in here can use. Failing that, we break some chairs and tape the knife to the legs. Those won't be as long as a broom handle, but it's better to have some reach than none at all," Owen concluded.

"We were just about to decide on who should go out there," Julius said. "We're making two trips: one to get the weapons, and then one to take the inn. Then those that took the inn will escort us back at the church to our new home."

"I'll go for both trips," Kevin said. "I owe it to Maya to not only help us all retake her home, but to also put her out of her misery."

"Well... that pretty much settles it then," Hayden said. "Jin can handle that IV stand well, Cain has his rifle, and Owen is going with that sledgehammer... I'm the strongest one left, and it'd be unfair for me to sit this one out. You'll probably want that hoe then, Kevin."

Discussion happened once more as the five split off and headed towards the weapons and then the door. They were likely all worried comments with the men easing the others with assuring claims that they'll be careful. But there was no guaranteeing that. Kevin just wanted to get this over with as quick as possible. He grabbed the hoe and waited by the door for the others to be ready. Despite his negative attitude at the moment, he couldn't help but crack a smile when Hayden walked up to him carrying an axe. Paired with that beard of his, he looked like a big, beefy lumberjack.

There were no words as the five left the church. There was only the determination to succeed at this task, to obtain a safer haven with warm beds and hearty meals, to quell the tortured dead that got in their way, to ensure their continued safety, and to take the first step to taking the town back.

Jin took the lead, with Kevin, Hayden, and Owen close behind him, with Cain further back. It seemed a bit risky to have such an important individual be the vanguard, but it was likely all he would do is push the zombies down with the IV stand, allowing the three right behind him to follow up with the finishing blows.

They rounded the corner of the cliff and entered Harmonica Town. Gill was right in front of them, and he was quick to take notice of their arrival.

"This is for my grandmother, you son of a bitch!" Jin growled as he flipped the IV stand around and sharply thrust the pole into the bottom of Gill's mouth, behind his chin. It punched through his mouth and it must have penetrated further into the brain, as he slumped to the ground, dead once more. Jin planted a foot on Gill's body and managed to remove the IV stand after a few tugs.

"Hurry, before we're spotted!" Owen exclaimed in a hushed tone. Jin nodded and followed him over to the roof of the mayor's house. From this vantage point they could see most of the village, and a few zombies were near the inn. Looks like they would have to fight their way over there.

"What were you doing?" Cain asked Jin with anger as the five entered the mayor's house and shut the door. "That wasn't part of our attack strategy! What if your pole got stuck?"

"Well, it didn't," Jin said dismissively as he wiped the pole clean of blood using a tablecloth. "And I had to kill him for my grandmother."

"We would have been there to help him, Cain," Hayden said. "That would be one less spear for the others, but we all know Jin would be damn capable with one of those."

"I need something other than this stand anyway. Those wheels on one end are really weighing this down and making it difficult to use," Jin said.

"We don't have much time to waste here... we should start looking and get out quick before they notice we're in here," Kevin said.

A quick search of the house was made. The mayor indeed had a cutlery set of six kitchen knives, but there was only a mop and a broom for the handles. So only two spears... the rest would need chair legs for handles.

"What if we tape chair legs together?" Kevin suggested.

Owen shook his head, "It'd be too wobbly."

"Jin, what are you doing? We've found everything we need!" Hayden called out to the doctor, who was still scrounging around various shelves and drawers.

"Now we do," Jin said with a smile as he pulled out a screwdriver from a drawer. He quickly walked over to the IV stand and began unscrewing the wheeled base. As he was doing that, the rest crafted the makeshift polearms for the others. Within a few minutes, the task was done.

"I don't think we thought this through," Kevin said as he looked at the weapons in everyone's hands, and then the six polearms on the ground, two long and four short. "How are we carrying these back to the church in one go?"

"It's probably too dangerous to just bring the other volunteers here, huh?" Cain asked, looking at the others, who all gave him a nod. "Figures," he added with a sigh.

"I guess I can carry them," Hayden said. "Someone will just need to carry this axe..."

"...which means two of us will be out of commission for the trip back," Owen finished.

"I'll take it. We can't worry about this unless it happens. But the longer we linger in here, the higher the chance of it happening is," Kevin said as he held out a hand for the axe. Hayden gave it to him, and Kevin lurched forward, surprised at the axe's weight. Hayden scooped up the polearms with both arms, and nodded to the others to show that he had a good grasp on them.

"Okay, let's go!" Cain exclaimed as he opened the door of the mayor's house and emerged, rifle-first. He made a quick look around before directing the others out. They got back into formation, and turned around the corner, but they had to pause in their tracks with shock.

Simon and Paolo were crouched over Gill's body, and they were eating it! Simon's back was turned, but Paolo was facing them and took notice. The young Asian boy looked up at them with a mouth full of meat, which fell to the ground with a wet plop as he opened his mouth to moan at them. This alerted Simon to their presence as well. The two zombies were quickly to their feet and shambling towards them.

Jin moved forward and slapped Simon across the face with the pole, knocking him to the ground. Owen walked over Simon's body, raised his sledgehammer, closed his eyes, and brought it down on his head, a sickening splat heard as it was crushed. Jin thrust the pole at Paolo with the intent of knocking him over, but it punctured straight through him instead as it impaled him in the neck. Blood began flowing out of both ends of the pole as Paolo's moans became choked, wet sputters.

Jin cursed under his breath as he backed up. The wheeled stand was a good thing, after all. Hayden quickly gave Jin one of the polearms, and the doctor ended the boy's unlife by stabbing him through the eye. The boy fell to the ground, he backwards baseball cap falling off of his head as he collided with the earth. They could hear moans in the distance... the other zombies had heard them. They quickly ran back to the church.

The others were relieved that they had succeeded in their goal, but a few were not enthused that Jin had wasted one of the spears that they had made.

"It's not like any of you were planning on using them, right? That would mean you were in a life-or-death situation," Angela pointed out.

"They eat their own," Jin said with disgust, changing the subject away from pointless squabbling. "Not when they're walking about. But if you take down one of them, make them dead again... they'll tear into it like it was someone alive."

Silence spread across the church as that fact had time to digest among them.

"Well... who's coming with us to take back the inn?" Owen asked. "We have five weapons here."

There was discussion amongst the group, and it was soon decided that Angela, Kathy, Julius, Calvin, and Anissa would go. The others were either too afraid or still traumatized from the day's events.

With the plan decided, the ten quickly moved out and did their best to try and avoid looking at Simon's smashed head. Anissa wasn't so lucky and had to run to a nearby bush to vomit.

"I suggest not going into the inn until it's cleaned, then," Kevin said to her as she rejoined the group, wiping her mouth as she walked up.

"Noted," she replied, queasiness still audible in her voice.

They quickly made their way to the inn. Three of the zombies were lumbering about near it: an older man dressed in a boat captain's outfit, a small boy wearing a blue shirt with blonde spiky hair with goggles in it, and burly Pacific Islander with a curly tuft of dark hair atop his head dressed in traditional clothing. Pascal, Taylor, and Samson, from what Kevin gathered from hearing the townspeople describe them. Other zombies in the terrace below the group noticed them, but there was nothing they could do to reach them.

Jin fell back and let Kevin, Hayden, and Owen take them with their superior melee weapons. There wasn't much room to maneuver, and he didn't have a weapon that could knock them down now. Pascal was the first to approach, sporting a nasty wound on the side of his face from someone ripping it off with their teeth. Owen thrust the head of the sledgehammer forward to push him back and then followed it up with a hefty swing that knocked him into the side of the inn. That didn't kill him. Taylor slipped past Pascal, but Kevin drove the hoe into the boy's head. Samson drew closer, and Kevin fell back, letting go of the hoe as Hayden stepped forward.

Samson made a sudden lunge at Hayden, who kept him at bay by pushing the axe towards him. Cain growled as he saw Pascal get back up. Owen didn't have enough room to swing that hammer... he took aim with his rifle and put one between the sailor's eyes. Hayden mustered up a surge of strength and pushed Samson back. He then drove the axe into his head.

With the three zombies killed, Kevin and Hayden retrieved their weapons and moved to the inn. Kevin held up a hand, stopping the others. Growls could be heard from the zombies on the terrace below them, but no others could be seen nearby.

"I have to do this," Kevin said. "For her."

Kevin took a deep breath and opened the door to the Ocarina Inn, stepping inside. The pungent stench of blood and death immediately knocked deep into his nostrils, stopping him for a bit. But the sound of eating drew his attention away from the horrible smell. He felt tears well up in his eyes as he looked before him.

Maya was above her father's body, ravenously tearing into him. Chase's body was mostly unrecognizable at this point: a mess of blood, clothing, sinew, and organs draped over a skeleton. One of Jake's legs was in a similar state. Maya stopped her frantic chewing and looked up at Kevin with dead, empty eyes. Blood covered her lower face and dripped down to coat her neck and apron.

The two stared at each other momentarily. He couldn't waste any time. He had to do this. Maya couldn't suffer like this.

Maya made a raspy growl as she stood up and walked over her father's body. Her knees had been dipped into the blood around Chase's body, and her belly was visibly swollen from all of the meat she had ingested. Bits of bloody meat had fallen from her mouth and clung to her dress and apron. This was no longer Maya.

"I couldn't save you... I'm sorry," Kevin said to her, though he knew his words fell on deaf ears. "But I can at least save you from this."

Kevin raised the hoe and readied himself as Maya drew closer. When she was close enough, Kevin swung the tool into her head, stopping her dead in her tracks. He took a moment to regain himself and to silently apologize to Maya once more before exiting the building.

"It's a mess in there..." Kevin said quietly.

And so began the reclaiming of the inn. Fortunately for the survivors, all of the zombies in Harmonica Town were either over in the beach area or in the lower terrace. So long as someone stayed around to distract them, they could come and go as they pleased without any danger.

The bodies were taken out of the inn, the more severely-damaged ones wrapped in towels. They were all taken to the graveyard by the church, where a mass grave had started to be dug. The others moved in the hotel once the bodies were removed and began to clean the floor with bleached soapy water and mops. It took the rest of the day, but soon the hotel was habitable and all of the killed zombies in Harmonica Town were buried.

Even with the inn, there still weren't enough beds for everyone. Fortunately someone familiar with the inn found some extra mattresses stored away that would suffice as a bed when placed on the ground. There were also two double beds: Cain and Hanna took one, while Ruth wanted her daughter to sleep next to her so that she knew that Anissa was safe. A few people would sleep in the lobby, as they would for sure be awoken if zombies tried getting into the building.

But before bed, the people more apt towards cooking prepared a feast for everyone. With their hearts and stomachs warm and full, it seemed that things were finally looking up. Though Kevin couldn't help but feel disturbed at how at peace most of the villagers seemed to be...

* * *

Crickets chirped and an owl hooted as the full moon hung in the night sky. Emerging from the Fugue Forest was a young woman with long silver hair that curled up at the tips. She was garbed in a black blouse and a short pink skirt, and she wore black leggings. She looked up at the bright full moon and her lips twisted into a devious smile.

"What a beautiful night to have a curse," she remarked as she began walking towards Harmonica Town, humming a familiar tune as she took this midnight stroll.

* * *

"This is ridiculous," spoke a voice into a walkie-talkie. "I can't believe I trusted you in that this would work."

"Alerting me before you contact me is only polite," came the response. "And your complaints need context."

"You sold me on the idea of this being a major outbreak. I got one of the villagers, and it spread to some of the others... but..."

"But? From the sounds of things, there is no problem here."

"Let me finish! Sure, it spread, but not enough! We have sixteen live ones and, by my count, nine rotting freaks. This group is starting to fight back. This isn't enough! At this rate, the outbreak will begin _and_ end here!"

"Please, calm down. There are still nine zombies. Just one is all it takes to spread the infection. And I doubt your group will merely hole up in the location and do nothing else. This will endanger them. If all else fails, you still have more of the serum..."

"Not enough."

"That's what you think. Just use it intelligently and sparingly. It will work like any poison, and even a small dosage is fatal. I may have sold you on the idea of ending the world, but do know that it is up to you to enforce its end. They suspect nothing, do they?"

"...No."

"Then there is no issue here at all. These things take time. Have patience."

"Sure, fine," the person holding the walkie-talkie said with an exasperated sigh. "I should probably get back inside before someone wakes up and sees I'm not there."

The person turned the walkie-talkie off and set it back in its hidden spot before turning around and heading back to the Ocarina Inn.

* * *

ALIVE

Angela, Anissa, Cain, Calvin, Candace, Hanna, Hayden, Jin, Julius, Kathy, Kevin, Owen, Perry, Phoebe, Renee, Ruth, Selena, the Wizard (not present)

DEAD

Chase, Chloe, Colleen, Gill, Irene, Jake, Maya, Paolo, Pascal, Samson, Simon, Taylor, Yolanda

UNDEAD

Barbara, Craig, Hamilton, Luna, Mira, Ozzie, Ramsey, Shelly, Sue

LOST

Bo, Dale, Luke, Toby, the Witch


	8. A New Day

Corpse Harvest, Chapter 8:

_What's going on? My head feels fuzzy..._

_I shook my head and rubbed my eyes to shake off my clouded senses. I wasn't in the inn anymore, that was for sure. Even though I could perceive my surroundings, there was still an unnatural thickness to the air, a strange muggy sensation that seemed to enter me and spread throughout most of my other senses._

_By focusing, I could make out that I was outside. It was definitely night, as I could barely see. Only it didn't feel like I was outside at all. No ambient sounds of nature could be heard, no quiet breeze flowing past my skin could be felt, and there was no real feeling of hot or cold. My ears weren't ringing despite things being, for all I could tell, completely quiet._

_I began looking around to try and gather where I was. It didn't help much. There was some sort of pavement at my feet, but that was all I could make out. There seemed to be a dim radius of light emanating from my body, and that was the only source of light. Though I could not see the horizon, I could tell that when I gazed upwards that the night sky was empty of stars and of moon. Wait, no... it wasn't empty at all. There were just clouds._

_And all of a sudden everything changed. A light of sorts washed over the area, revealing to me where I was. I was in front of the church... how did I get here?_

_I looked around a bit more. The area was different. The light source was dim and red, giving the entire area an eerie glow. Looking up, I could see the moon was full and large, much larger than I had ever seen it before. It was also the color of blood, a deep dark red. It stood in a hole in the clouds, which were thick, rolling bands of dark violet circling the moon. It was like I was staring at the wrathful gaze of an angry god._

_Feeling unease, I looked around me. The church was there... I was on the church grounds. But everything else was different. The church did not have a thick forest surrounding it, nor did it have a straight path through the woods that appeared to trail on as far as I could see. It filled me with a sense of discomfort. Maybe someone was in the church that could tell me what was going on._

_I walked to the church doors and tried opening them, but they were stuck. At least, that is what I thought at first. Putting in a bit more effort simply showed that the doors were much heavier than normal and they slowly grinded against the floor as I pulled on them. It felt as if the door was resisting me, and the grinding sounded like a groan of protest._

_Upon finally getting the door open a respectable amount, I let go and darted inside of the church as the door swung shut and slammed behind me. I stopped for a bit and caught my breath, recovering from the strenuous task of getting inside this building. A brief glance showed that nobody was inside the building, and that the lighting inside was exactly the same as the lightning outside, despite there being a roof and walls blocking out most of the light of the bloody moon._

_So, no answers here then... only more questions. I was certainly still in Harmonica Town. This was the church. But how come the surroundings of the church looked so different? I would have sat down and thought about this more, but my thoughts were interrupted when I thought I heard a woman humming softly in the distance._

_"Hello? Is anyone there?" I called out. I regretted speaking, for the humming abruptly ended and my voice echoed throughout the building. I shuddered from the alien feeling of my voice being louder than the culmination of everything in my vicinity._

_I waited for a bit, and the humming picked back up. It sounded as if it were coming from Perry's room. It felt weird and creepy being in here, but I had to see if there was someone that knew what was going on. I walked towards the door to Perry's room, but the humming did not grow louder in volume. It was actually growing dimmer, as if the girl humming it was descending down some long corridor past this door. I opened the door, and the humming stopped once more._

_There was no corridor. It was just Perry's room. There were no signs that anybody had been in here. Had I just been imagining the sounds? And as I turned around, I yelped in fright and instinctively backpedaled into Perry's room, where the door shut on its own. I took deep breaths to calm down my shaking nerves. It was the briefest of sights, but there was no mistaking what I saw._

_It was Maya. She had been behind me and was smiling at me mischievously. But her skin was porcelain white, far paler and finer than her normal skin hue. And her eyes... her eyes were completely black. The short moment that I shared eye contact with her, it felt as if those two voids in her head were sucking my own eyes from their sockets._

_I gulped as I stood up and gathered the courage to leave the room. I heard no more sounds from Maya... if that even was her. So it sounded as if the coast was clear. My hand shook as it approached the doorknob, so I took another deep breath to calm myself. My heart was pounding in my chest, my ears, throughout my whole body. It looked like I couldn't really calm myself, so I just had to grit my teeth and muster up the courage on my own. I turned it and opened the door._

_I sighed in relief. Nothing. Was I just imagining things? Did I hallucinate Maya standing behind me? No... I couldn't have, because I also heard her humming. And I definitely felt the sensation of someone standing behind me as I peered into Perry's room. And it felt as if someone was watching me right now..._

_My peripheral vision caught a glimpse of a figure moving past one of the windows in the front of the church. I quickly shook off the initial feeling of fright and ran to the entrance of the church. To my surprise, the doors gave no resistance this time and opened like normal. I stumbled from the unexpected lack of resistance, but managed to catch myself before I fell. I looked up and could see Maya skipping down the trail leading deep into the forest._

_"Wait!" I called out to her as I ran after her. Though I was sprinting as fast as I could, and she was merely skipping, she was still moving faster. She turned to look at me right before she faded from my sight, and giggled. I could hear the giggle as if she were just a few feet in front of me._

_I stopped sprinting and stooped over, panting with exhaustion. When I caught my breath and looked up, the path was gone, and so was the sky. The forest had encroached and enveloped my surroundings. The only light was now that strange glow that originated from me._

_Unfettered despite the strange and unfamiliar surroundings, I pressed forward. Surely I would find some trace of Maya if I kept moving in the direction that she had been skipping in. The wilderness grew thicker as I pressed forward, its features twisting into more demented shapes. Strange, exotic plants sprouted from the ground, their leaves shaped like fingers reaching out and grasping every which way. The trees were becoming larger and thicker, and their bark was gnarled and had strange warped protrusions that disturbingly looked like people writhing in agony, as if they had been trapped underneath the bark and died struggling to break free._

_I was certainly feeling nervous, but I could also feel that I was getting closer to Maya. I continued moving forward, trying to avoid the plants as much as possible, but it was soon impossible to do so. I moved through one of the bushes with the finger-shaped leaves, and it felt as if several hands were grabbing me and pulling me back. "No!" I cried as I fought against the grasp of the plant and freed myself._

_The bushes soon went away, as the trees had become so large and thick that they took up most of the ground. There were many low-hanging branches, with vines hanging from them. I tried avoiding the vines in fear that they would grab me like the bushes did, but one brushed my neck despite my best efforts to avoid it. It did not attack me, but the texture of the vine was very coarse. I pushed it away from me, but it refused to budge. Confused, I turned to look at the vine and screamed in fear, frantically whipping my head around to confirm that this was the case. It was._

_These were not vines hanging from the branches, but rather nooses._

_In my panic, I tripped over a large root of one of the trees and fell on my back. I heard Maya giggling once more. She sounded much closer than last time, as if she were right behind me. I quickly stood myself up and looked around, but she was nowhere to be seen. However, I did spot a strange glowing light in the distance, a tiny pinprick down the horizon not unlike a star. That was my destination._

_As I moved onward, I became aware that there was now a slight breeze. I shuddered from the wind's icy caress. My ears began to pick up sounds... faint whispers from the same woman, but they were coming from different directions and sources._

_"You failed in protecting her."_

_"You abandoned her."_

_"It should have been you, not her."_

_"You're the only one that cares that she is gone."_

_"You don't deserve to live."_

_I endured the scathing remarks from the forest as best as I could, but I felt tears welling up in my eyes as I pressed on closer and closer to the light. What they were saying was all true. I had to make it up to Maya by finding her and apologizing for all of my wrongs._

_And before I knew it, I had reached the light. I wiped the tears from my eyes to see that I had arrived in a small clearing in the labyrinthine forest. The light had come from a small spring with bright, glowing water. And kneeling before it was Maya, quietly weeping._

_"Maya... I'm so, so sorry. I never wanted this to happen to you. I messed up. I couldn't protect you. And I left you to die alone," I said through tears anew._

_"That makes everything better, does it?" I heard Maya ask, her voice bitter and sardonic. "Apologizing will right every wrong and bring me back, won't it?"_

_I was taken aback by this uncharacteristic scorn from Maya. "N-No, it won't, but..." I began, but I didn't have a conclusion to that statement._

"That's right, it won't!" _Maya growled as a powerful and repulsive stench filled the air. The glowing waters of the spring were no more, replaced by a pool of blood. Through my dim source of light, I could see that Maya now looked the same as right before I killed her. A distended stomach filled with flesh and blood staining her clothing, knees, throat, and mouth. She stood up and looked at me with the cold, white eyes of the dead, but her gaze was not soulless and empty. Despite being blank, I could feel a fierce malice in her eyes._

"You betrayed me," _she growled, each word feeling like a knife being pushed deeper and deeper into my chest._ "I counted on you to protect me and guide me through this crisis. I even was starting to _like_ you. All you ended up doing was running away, abandoning me and leaving me with what I feared most."

_"I didn't want to! There was nothing I could do!" I cried._

"You could have taken me away from there and put me down. But you listened to the others and left me to rot." _As she said that, her skin suddenly turned a clammy gray color as her body rapidly began to decompose before my eyes._ "This is what you did to me. Left me to dine upon the remains of my crush and my family. Left me to wander the earth as a disgusting creature, my belly filled with blood and flesh and my underpants filled with shit and piss as I slowly rotted away."

_"But I saved you from that fate!" I said, but it didn't feel sincere. I had saved her from being a zombie, sure, but she had already eaten quite a bit by the time I found her. The smell of blood and death was too strong, but there was little doubt that her bowels had voided themselves by then, too._

"And now I'm rotting in a shallow grave. You are despicable, Kevin. You and all of the villagers... you are no less human than us walking dead," _Maya hissed as she lurched towards me. I was too overwhelmed with despair to move as she grabbed me, her cold, bony fingers digging sharply into my skin. I did nothing as she opened her mouth and sunk her teeth into my neck._

* * *

Kevin's eyes snapped open. He felt terrible and afraid from the nightmare he had just experienced, and he had definitely been crying during the dream. He wiped his eyes and sat up in bed, too disturbed to try and go back to sleep but too disoriented to get out of bed.

_I am sorry, Maya... I truly am... I never wanted any of this to happen..._ he thought to himself. He glanced at a clock and saw that is was early in the morning. Nobody would be up yet except for the person on watch. Kevin glanced over at the other bed in the room to see Angela sound asleep.

This experience harkened back to his early childhood, when he still shared a room with his sister. Every time he had a bad dream, he would wake up his sister to talk about it. Angela may have been stubborn and mean throughout his life, but being the youngest of four siblings in his family meant that Angela was the only one that could easily relate to his problems.

_Shit... I never called Molly to tell her that I made it here safely..._ Kevin thought to himself. The events of yesterday were too tumultuous for him to remember to call his worrywart eldest sister. But there was little he could do about it now... he only knew her number by looking at his contacts on his phone, and it was dead at this point. There was no reason to get worked up about it, that's for sure. There were far more pressing matters in the current situation he was in.

He noticed the strange clothing he was wearing and was confused for a moment before remembering why he was wearing it. He and a few others that had faced zombies yesterday had gotten their clothing bloody. There was a laundry room in the inn, but they had no spare clothing to wear except for the clothes of Maya and her family. It felt strange and wrong to be wearing the clothes of a dead man... but his clothes were now clean. Since it was so early, he might as well fold everyone else's clothes and deliver them in front of the rooms they were staying at.

He left his room, which was the left side room. The layout of the room troubled him, as that room and the one next to it seemed more personal than the rooms in the back. He very well could be in Maya's room. The laundry room was nearby, but he was thirsty. He walked to the lobby and saw that Owen was keeping watch. There were some mattresses scattered across the lobby floor. Kevin could see that Jin, Kathy, Hayden, and Perry were the watchmen currently off duty.

"Kevin? What are you doing up so early? It's four in the morning!" Owen said quietly upon noticing him.

"Hey Owen," Kevin replied with a sigh and a downtrodden expression. "I had a nightmare and can't fall back asleep." He found a glass in a shelf and went to the refrigerator to fill it up with water.

"Yeah, I've been told we've had a few of those over the night. Though you're the first one that can't go back to sleep," Owen said with a small frown. "Do you want to talk about it?" he added after Kevin took a sip of his water.

"No... no thanks," Kevin said glumly. "Where's the bathroom again?" he added after rubbing an eye.

"Down that hall and all the way to the right," Owen said, pointing behind him. Kevin languidly shuffled off to the bathroom after finishing his glass of water. "Are you alright? That nightmare must have really gotten to you..." Owen said when Kevin arrived back at the lobby, still looking depressed.

"Yeah, somewhat... I don't know if I feel like talking about it, though," Kevin said.

"Hey, no worries. I'm here for you if you need anything."

"Thanks... how are they holding up?" Kevin asked, referring to the four asleep on the floor.

"Well, it's hard to tell with Jin. I think he had an adrenaline high for most of yesterday that he came down from last night. He seems a lot more somber... kind of like you. Won't talk about it and all. I think quite a bit of the people here feel the same way. Kathy and Hayden seem closer than they did before this mess... so it's nice to see some good things come out of this. Perry... he keeps mostly to himself. Real quiet and meek guy," Owen responded.

"Well, at least everyone else seems to be okay," Kevin said. "I'm going to help out everyone at least and go to the laundry room to fold their clothes and deliver them to their doors."

"That sounds good and all, but... you do know some of the ladies have their delicates in there, right?" Owen said with a sleazy grin.

"W-What?" Kevin asked with a bit of shock. "Some people are temporarily wearing even the underwear of dead people? I thought just wearing the clothes was weird enough!"

Owen laughed and clapped Kevin on the back. "Hey, I'm just kidding with you! If anyone washed their underpants, they probably did it separately of the main load and just went commando for a bit."

"Some of us are trying to sleep..." Kathy grumbled as she tossed and turned on her mattress.

"Oh... whoops. Sorry about that. Got a little carried away with the volume," Owen said bashfully.

_Some watch crew we have there if only Kathy woke up..._ Kevin thought in his head as he walked off to the laundry room, which was in the side hallway, right next to the room he and his sister were staying in. He pulled the big batch of clothes out and rifled through them, fortunately finding no panties or bras. Though any lady putting those in with a batch of clothes would have had an awkward situation with anyone who did this.

It was easy sorting out what clothes belonged to whom, and Kevin changed out of Jake's clothes on the spot when he found his clothes. He discarded the dead man's clothes in a hamper. With the stacks of folded clothes neatly placed in a laundry basket, he left the room and set the basket on a table in the inn's lobby. Owen immediately walked up to help out, and it wasn't too long before the clothes were placed in front of the proper doors.

"Thanks for helping out," Kevin said as he entered the lobby once more after placing the basket back in the laundry room.

"No problem; it's what I do," Owen whispered very quietly. Kevin couldn't help but smile at Owen's reaction to waking up Kathy, who was likely out again by now.

"Well... I'm heading back to my room. I need some time to myself," Kevin said. "See you later."

* * *

Selena could not believe what she was seeing. After losing so many dear friends and even her parents, her emotions had been numbed from a heavy sorrow. She could see the same feeling in most of the other townspeople. She figured Julius would have been the same, but there he was, sitting at a vanity table and fussing over his appearance. Someone had been so kind to even deliver their washed clothes here, and Julius did not appear pleased.

"Ugh, the person who folded my clothes had no idea what they were doing," Julius sighed as he tugged at his clothing trying to remove any perceived flaws in his appearance. He gazed in the mirror and sighed. His hair was a complete mess... it would take a while to straighten it out. Julius noticed Selena in the reflection of the mirror, glaring at him.

"What's your problem?" he asked curtly as he rooted through the vanity table until he found a hair brush.

"I can't believe you! All of these terrible things going on and you're more concerned about how you look than our safety!" Selena exclaimed.

"Because I feel pretty safe, don't you? And appearances are good to keep up. There's never a reason to look shabby," Julius said.

"I have the feeling you care more about yourself than the others here," Selena said lowly. "That attitude of yours practically confirms it."

Julius quietly set down the brush and turned around to face Selena with an annoyed countenance. "Don't _you_ get all preachy with me. Look at what you're wearing. You care about how you look, too."

"N-No I don't!" Selena said defensively.

"Oh, look, a stutter," Julius said with a roll of his eyes. "Fashion is my passion, darling. I can tell when people want attention and when people just want to cover their bodies. You're not doing a good job on that last one, either."

"Don't you 'darling' me," Selena said with a pout, finding no other comeback for what Julius said.

"Besides, don't you say I care more about me than the others. I _did_ help save you. You're welcome, by the way," Julius said as he turned back to face the mirror and began fixing his hair again.

"Oh... I guess I never thanked you, did I..." Selena said with a small frown as she stared at the floor.

"Or anyone else. Understandable, I'd say. You did lose your parents out there. A shame," Julius said calmly.

"I... I can't tell if you're being sincere or if you're mocking me," Selena said as she glared at Julius once more. Julius sighed and slowed down his brushing.

"Most people don't get me," he said. "I have trouble with these things. I'm a bit of a bohemian, if you couldn't tell. And I've always had a problem connecting to what society would feel the proper emotion would be in a situation. And I have a _lot_ of built up bitterness because I've always looked like this. I moved out here with my aunt and uncle because the teasing was unbearable."

"You mean Mira? She's your aunt?" Selena asked. "This means... you've lost someone, too."

"My uncle? Yes. And now my aunt. I feel pain, I do. It's just hard for me to express it in a proper way. Am I making sense?" Julius asked.

"I suppose so... I'm sorry for being so harsh on you," Selena said.

"Hm. No need for apologies. After all, I still have parents," he said.

Selena was about to snap at him once more, but she shook her head when she realized this was exactly what he had been talking about.

"I miss them so much. I didn't even get to say goodbye. We just came here to get groceries... I never thought something like this would happen. My father's been freed, but my mother still walks the earth as one of those things..." Selena said, hanging her head in sadness.

"Look on the bright side of things. Be grateful you had a loving family to the very end," Julius said.

"I'm not going to feel better if you keep putting yourself down," Selena said with a small smile as she looked up at Julius, seeing his sorrowed expression through the reflection of the mirror he sat before.

"Sorry... I've just had a rough life. But you currently have it worse off. I'm sure we'll put all of those tortured souls to rest today," he said solemnly. He then stood up and turned to face Selena, a warm smile on his face. "So, how do I look?"

Selena couldn't help but laugh lightly at her roommate's odd behavior. "You look fine."

* * *

"Is something wrong, honey?" Ruth asked her daughter. Anissa had been mostly quiet since they woke up. Judging from her somber expression, it wasn't because of how her mother had acted yesterday.

"I saw Taylor as one of them yesterday, mom," Anissa said with a hollow voice. "and I saw Jin take him down. I was scared, sure, but I figured I would feel at peace knowing he was at rest. I didn't know those ghastly images would haunt my dreams instead. I'm surprised you slept soundly, considering how you didn't want me to leave yesterday."

"I only was able to sleep well because you were at my side," Ruth said. "And I'm so sorry that you saw Taylor like that... I don't even want to imagine..."

"You poor dears," Hannah said from the other double bed in the room. "I wish I knew what words to say to help ease your pain..."

"It's the thought that counts," Anissa said with a sigh, followed by yawning. "I could use some untroubled sleep, too."

"Thank you... I just hope everything goes well today. My family and I have always been optimists, but it's hard to keep that feeling, you know?" Hanna said with a glum expression.

"It's just not fair," Ruth said with a mixture of anger and pain. "Why my family first? Who would do such a thing?"

"What are you implying?" Cain asked. "That someone did all of this?"

"I don't know what to think... but I know that Craig and Taylor were the first to end up like this," Ruth said.

"We have to stop being fixated on the past," Cain said as he crossed his arms.

"Cain!" Hanna exclaimed with shock. "These women have lost so much! How can you be so callous?"

"All of us have lost someone we care about, Hanna. But we can't keep looking back. I'm more worried about the future. Once we've got this town back, do we just continue on like nothing ever happened? Not all of us were born and raised here. Some of us have extended family. People will notice that these people are gone," Cain said.

"We'll just have to hope everything turns out okay..." Anissa said lowly.

* * *

When the group was deciding on who would stay with whom in the hotel rooms, Renee offered to share a room with Candace. While she had her fair share of sorrows during the first day of the disaster, she knew that poor Candace would need a lot of reassurance to get her out of her rut. Renee had managed to become calm enough after the inn was taken back to try and comfort Candace, but she seemed to be lost in her own little world. Now that it was a new day, maybe Candace had enough time to mull over things and adapt more to the present.

"Are you okay, Candace? You've been awfully quiet," Renee asked.

"No... I'm not okay," Candace said, her voice quiet and hoarse from not speaking for so long. She had spoken. That was some progress.

"Well... I know how you feel. I'm here for you... I want to help you through this," Renee said.

"Bullshit..." Candace breathed.

"Come again?" Renee asked with confusion. She thought she heard Candace swear, but were her ears playing tricks on her? That was so unlike her to say such mean things...

Candace looked up at Renee with a fierce glare. "You have _no idea_ how I feel!" she hissed.

"Candace, I'm only trying to help you!" Renee said with fright. She had never seen the quiet and meek seamstress show any extremes in emotion, especially something as bright and burning as this spite.

"Your family is still okay! It's easy for you to feel fine because you still have your parents!" Candace shouted. "I lost my parents when I was young! I was so scared back then... I was young, but old enough to know the pain of never having them around ever again, unlike Luna. Our grandmother was kind enough to take us in. And now they're gone! I don't have anyone! I just froze up in fear when they needed me the most..."

All of the rage had disappeared from Candace's face. Her lip was now quivering and her eyes were welling up with tears.

"I'm so, so sorry, Candace... I didn't know..." Renee said softly.

"No... I shouldn't have snapped at you, but... it hurts so much..." Candace said quietly as she began to sob. Renee walked over to the wounded girl and hugged her tightly.

"We're all here for you, Candace," Renee said warmly. "You don't need to be alone."

* * *

Calvin got out of bed and took a nice stretch. He felt pretty good now that the crazy dream was all over. He was briefly scared by the sight of Phoebe in his room, but since she was shirtless, this must mean that the dream was going on a lot longer than he thought it would.

"Of course..." Phoebe sighed. Her back had been turned to Calvin, so there wasn't much urgency to cover herself, but she was about to put on her bra anyway. "As soon as I'm convinced you won't wake up, you do."

"I'm pretty sure I'm still asleep," Calvin said as he opened the dresser next to his bad and pulled out a fresh set of his clothes. It was pretty strange that he went to sleep in his own bed in his dream.

"You're not asleep, Calvin," Phoebe sighed as slipped on her undershirt and began to put on her button up shirt. "You know if you realized you were dreaming you would be lucid dreaming, right?"

"Well, maybe I am," Calvin said as he put on his hat.

"Do you even know what lucid dreaming is?" Phoebe asked with exasperation as she put on her glasses. Before he could respond with a dumb statement, Phoebe frowned at him. "Calvin... please, accept reality. This is something that's happening. No dream can ever be this vivid unless you're in control of it."

"But... this _has_ to be a dream, Phoebe," Calvin said lowly.

"Damn it, Calvin! Do you think I _don't_ want this to be a dream?" Phoebe shouted. "My parents are gone! But I've had to accept that this is what things have come to..."

Phoebe had begun to tear up, and Calvin couldn't help but feel guilty. He bowed his head in shame and took a few deep breaths.

"You're right... it's pretty selfish of me to chalk up all of this to a dream. I've probably lost the least out of anyone in this town. I'm just scared, Phoebe... I'm not a brave man. This is how I try to be brave... by convincing myself that none of this is actually happening," Calvin said.

"You don't need to be afraid, Calvin. I'm not afraid... because I have you," Phoebe said softly as she meekly grabbed Calvin's hand.

Calvin couldn't help but smile at Phoebe admitting her affection. He pulled her closer, eliciting a surprised yelp that was silenced as he kissed her.

He pulled back briefly. "Maybe love can be the source of my courage," he said with a smile.

"Just shut up and kiss me," Phoebe said with a warm smile as she kissed him back.

* * *

"What's wrong with you?" Angela asked in her usual aggressive manner. Kevin had been sitting on his bed for most of the morning, staring at the floor and moping about.

"It's nothing..." Kevin said quietly. He knew that wouldn't get her to go away. She would keep pressing and pressing like she always did.

"Are you still hung up on Maya?" Angela asked with a sigh.

"So what if I'm a decent human being, huh?" Kevin snapped at her. "Nobody else seems to care that she's gone!"

Angela stomped over to Kevin and slapped him across the face. "How unbelievably selfish of you! What, do you all think we're heartless monsters here? This town is one of the closest communities that I know of! Maya's loss has hurt all of us more than it's hurt you!"

"But... you all seemed at peace yesterday night..." Kevin said quietly, in a bit of shock from the slap he had received.

"So? We're not allowed to celebrate the _one_ good thing that happened yesterday? We can't _live?_ There are people _lost_ out there, Kevin! But instead, let's just focus on the people that have died. Let's just sit around and feel sorry for them and for ourselves. Let's do nothing as the people we can save get torn apart and the dead come knocking at our doors."

"But I failed to protect her..." Kevin whimpered.

"All of us failed to protect someone, Kevin," Angela sighed, realizing that she was being too mean to her baby brother. He was never the bravest, and deaths always got to him like this. "But it was completely out of our control. Some things just happen, and we have to carry the consequences with us."

"I just... everyone seems so cold about the losses," Kevin said.

"If they're not showing the pain on the outside, it's definitely there on the inside. It's just that now is not the time to mourn, Kevin. We have people out there that we need to find today. Now come on, everyone's cooking up a big breakfast. You can't operate on an empty stomach!" Angela exclaimed as she grabbed Kevin's arm and dragged him out of the room.

"You know... your pep talks can be a little less abrasive..." Kevin sighed as he shook his head.

"Oh, deal with it, you pansy," Angela said as she playfully stuck out her tongue.

* * *

"Oh, Kasey, I'm so worried! Kevin hasn't called back to tell me that he made it safely!" Molly exclaimed as she fidgeted about.

"Relax, sis. You know Angela, she's probably working that boy ragged," Kasey replied back.

"But Angela hasn't called, either!" Molly exclaimed. Kasey grabbed her shoulders to stop her nervous pacing.

"Look, everything's fine, okay? Just chew them out for forgetting to call you back when they do get in touch with you," he said reassuringly. Judging by Molly's expression, it didn't work.

"I need to know that they're safe..." she said quietly.

"Unbelievable..." Kasey sighed.

"Look, you know this isn't like either of them!" Molly huffed.

"Okay... if it makes you feel better, we'll head down there and check up on them. You're lucky I don't have any plans for the weekend. Now get off my back..." Kasey said, shaking his head with annoyance at his sister's actions.

* * *

ALIVE

Angela, Anissa, Cain, Calvin, Candace, Hanna, Hayden, Jin, Julius, Kathy, Kevin, Owen, Perry, Phoebe, Renee, Ruth, Selena, the Wizard (not present), Kasey (not present), Molly (not present)

DEAD

Chase, Chloe, Colleen, Gill, Irene, Jake, Maya, Paolo, Pascal, Samson, Simon, Taylor, Yolanda

UNDEAD

Barbara, Craig, Hamilton, Luna, Mira, Ozzie, Ramsey, Shelly, Sue

LOST

Bo, Dale, Luke, Toby, the Witch


End file.
